The Indianapolis Star’s editorial board made a plea to voters ahead of Tuesday’s primary contest to do their part in “halting Trump’s march.”
“Front-runner Donald Trump could move close to sealing the nomination with another strong win. That would be a disaster in the making,” the board wrote in an embittered non-endorsement criticizing all of the 2016 presidential candidates.
The editorial clobbered the GOP frontrunner for what the board called his unsophisticated policy proposals, “appalling comments about women” and divisive rhetoric about immigrants and minorities.
Noting that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was also “ill-suited to serve in the Oval Office” thanks to his penchant for launching “ideological crusades” on Capitol Hill, the board argued Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) offered “the best choice for voters.”
The board reserved some sharp words for the short-lived alliance between Kasich and Cruz to defeat Trump in critical primary races, including in the Hoosier State. Kasich did not campaign heavily in Indiana in recent days and let Cruz take the reigns, although he still urged voters in the state to support him.
The Star called the botched deal “disappointing” for cutting Indiana voters out of the equation and leaving them with no chance to “hear directly from the candidate most qualified to represent the Republican Party in the fall campaign for the White House.”
Despite its criticism, the takeaway message of the editorial was quite similar to the intention of the Kasich-Cruz alliance: stop Trump at all costs.
“We are withholding a formal endorsement in either race,” the board wrote. “Indiana voters can still have a big impact with their ballots Tuesday in halting Trump’s march. The best we can hope is that Hoosiers do just that — and say no to a candidate who is not merely flawed but is clearly unfit for the office he seeks.”
Campaigning across the state this week with notorious Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight, his latest endorser, Trump has hammered the outsourcing of industrial jobs in the state.
