WashPo: Mark Cuban Rejected Third-Party Presidential Bid

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says he has rejected overtures from anti-Trump Republicans seeking to put his name in for a third-party bid for the presidency, but still believes he could give Donald Trump a run for his money.

"He could come after me all he wanted, and he knows I would put him in his place," Cuban told The Washington Post. "All that said, again, I dont' see it happening. There isn't enough time."

Like Trump, Cuban also hosts his own popular television show, "Shark Tank," on ABC. He would not tell the Post who approached him with the idea for a third-party bid, but said they told he'd be a viable candidate because of his “bluster and volume, combined with substance and the ability to connect with voters on a more personal basis."

The Post reports that anti-Trump Republicans have been compiling a list of potential third-party candidates, knowing there is only a couple of weeks left to make their decision. Among their top prospects, aside from Cuban, are Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who dropped his own bid for the GOP nomination earlier this month. Mitt Romney, who has ruled out his own race for the presidency, reportedly has made personal contacts with both men, sources told The Post.

But Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has rejected the efforts to block Trump, telling Reuters that people organizing the efforts " may as well jump off the top floor of a building, because that’s what we’d be doing by having a third party."

Further, having an independent seeking the presidency could endanger the party's efforts to keep its majority in the Senate.


"The Senate goes as the presidential race goes," Priebus said. "They’re inextricably intertwined. If you don't participate in the presidential election you might as well kiss away the Senate as well."

Priebus organized the meeting between Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan this past week, and says it helped the two establish a relationship moving forward.

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