--- title: The Last Chance to Stop Donald Trump? description: It's primary day in Indiana where Ted Cruz's best hope is to keep Donald Trump from 1,237 delegates and force a contested convention. canonical: https://time.com/4316032/the-last-chance-to-stop-donald-trump/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-03T13:55:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:13:33.756Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Last Chance to Stop Donald Trump? og:description: It's primary day in Indiana where Ted Cruz's best hope is to keep Donald Trump from 1,237 delegates and force a contested convention. og:url: https://time.com/4316032/the-last-chance-to-stop-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Morning Must Reads og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Last Chance to Stop Donald Trump? twitter:description: It's primary day in Indiana where Ted Cruz's best hope is to keep Donald Trump from 1,237 delegates and force a contested convention. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Last Chance to Stop Donald Trump? by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 3, 2016 1:55 PM UTC  The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC.Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 3, 2016 1:55 PM UTC It’s primary day in Indiana (all polls close by 7 p.m. Eastern), where **Ted Cruz**‘s best hope is to keep **Donald Trump** from 1,237 delegates and force a contested convention. But things are not looking up for Cruz, who is finding that barnstorming the state, picking a veep and millions in television ads aren’t enough to overcome the distaste with which he is viewed by many in the GOP. He’d even scored the support of establishment figures and convinced his rival, **John Kasich** to clear the field in the state. For years Cruz has argued that his absolutist strain of conservatism would win if only given a chance, and for months he has promised victory over Trump in a head-to-head match-up. Both of those hypotheses will be tested to and likely to be proven false. For Cruz, it will be a crumbling of the myth he helped create—of a silent crop of millions of conservatives who have stayed home in recent elections just waiting for a savior like him to turn them out to the polls. For Trump, a win won’t put him over the needed figure, but makes him almost certain to reach the majority of delegates before the convention in July. **Hillary Clinton** is campaigning in Appalachia as she works to mitigate some of the damage done in the divisive Democratic Primary. Months after promising fewer coal jobs, Clinton is touting an economic revitalization plan for the region, but is finding a hostile reception. She is not the only candidate pivoting, with Trump testing out new lines of attack on Clinton Monday as he senses victory afoot in Indiana. Attorney General **Loretta Lynch** talks to TIME about the need for criminal justice reform. Trump’s lagging behind on general election preparation. And the year that geeky campaign-strategy talk went mainstream. Here are your must-reads: **Must Reads** [Donald Trump Looks Ahead to a November Race Against Hillary Clinton ](http://time.com/4315649/donald-trump-pivot-november/)Confident in Indiana, Trump pivots to general election, TIME’s Philip Elliott reports [Attorney General Loretta Lynch: Businesses Should Hire Former Inmates ](http://time.com/4313781/loretta-lynch-prison-reform-inmates-clarence-aaron-reentry/)In an interview with TIME’s Maya Rhodan, the AG chats about criminal justice reform [Delegate Hunt Fuels Tussle on Little-Known Republican Committee ](http://www.wsj.com/articles/delegate-hunt-fuels-tussle-on-little-known-republican-committee-1462232884)Donald Trump’s attempt to seize some control over course of GOP convention creates showdown over internal post \[Wall Street Journal\] [Donald Trump Far Behind in Preparing for General Election ](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e17c2ad217ff468fadbdcd48b80284d1/trump-ignoring-general-election-preparations)Uphill climb to build needed organization by November \[Associated Press\] **Sound Off** “Crooked Hillary. Bad judgment … Can I take heat if Bernie said it?” — Donald Trump beginning his pivot to the general election Monday “I mean, what was he doing—what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death—before the shooting? It’s horrible.” — Donald Trump repeating a National Enquirer story alleging Ted Cruz’s father was with the JFK assassin in 1963 **Bits and Bites** [The Year That Geeky Campaign-Strategy Talk Went Mainstream](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-year-that-geeky-campaign-strategy-talk-went-mainstream/2016/05/02/b5d57f22-0d6a-11e6-8ab8-9ad050f76d7d%5Fstory.html) \[Washington Post\] [Experts Warn of Backlash in Donald Trump’s China Trade Policies](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/03/us/politics/donald-trump-trade-policy-china.html?em%5Fpos=small&emc=edit%5Fcn%5F20160503&nl=first-draft&nl%5Fart=2&nlid=55003713&ref=headline&te=1&%5Fr=0) \[New York Times\] [Ted Cruz Confronts Donald Trump Supporters in Indiana](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/05/02/ted-cruz-confronts-donald-trump-supporters-in-indiana/?em%5Fpos=small&emc=edit%5Fcn%5F20160503&nl=first-draft&nl%5Fart=3&nlid=55003713&ref=headline&te=1) \[New York Times\] [ No, Putin Did Not Call Donald Trump ‘a Genius’](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/05/03/no-putin-did-not-call-donald-trump-a-genius/) \[Washington Post\] [Once a Clinton Stronghold, Appalachia Now Trump Country](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/clinton-stronghold-appalachia-now-trump-country-38834542) \[Associated Press\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4316032/the-last-chance-to-stop-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4316032/the-last-chance-to-stop-donald-trump/"},"headline":"The Last Chance to Stop Donald Trump?","datePublished":"2016-05-03T13:55:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:13:33.756Z","description":"Morning Must Reads: May 3","url":"https://time.com/4316032/the-last-chance-to-stop-donald-trump/","keywords":["Morning Must Reads"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Morning Must Reads","caption":"Capitol","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4316032/the-last-chance-to-stop-donald-trump/","name":"The Last Chance to Stop Donald Trump?"}}]}] ```