Trump stumbling in Wisconsin as forces coalesce against him

MADISON, Wis. -- Tuesday's Wisconsin presidential primary is emerging as a crucial lifeline for Republicans desperate to stop Donald Trump's march to their party's nomination. One of his worst weeks of the 2016 campaign is colliding with a state already skeptical of his brash brand of politics.

A big loss for Trump in Wisconsin would reduce his chances of securing the delegates he needs to clinch the GOP nomination before next July's national convention. It also could offer new hope to rival Ted Cruz and outside groups that see Trump as a threat to the future of the Republican Party.

"I think the whole country is looking to Wisconsin right now to make a choice in this race, and I think the choice Wisconsin makes is going to have repercussions for a long time to come," Cruz said Thursday in an interview with Milwaukee radio station WTMJ.

Trump's view is rosier for his own campaign: "If we win Wisconsin, it's pretty much over."

But almost nothing has gone right for him since Wisconsin stepped into the primary spotlight.

Even before he arrived, Trump was skewered in interviews with a trio of Wisconsin's influential conservative talk-radio hosts. On Tuesday, just hours before his first campaign stop, two-term Gov. Scott Walker threw his support behind Cruz.

Much of the trouble that followed was of the Trump campaign's own making. Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager, was slapped with a charge of simple battery for an altercation with a reporter. Then Trump was forced to walk back his assertion women should be punished for getting abortions, a comment that managed to unite both sides of the abortion debate in fierce opposition to his statement.

"As soon as he stepped foot in Wisconsin, the mask finally came off," said state Rep. Jim Steineke, the Republican majority leader in the Wisconsin Assembly. "Part of it is just the Wisconsin nice. We don't take too kindly to people who act the way Donald Trump acts."

GOP voter Linda Ruddy, a 48-year-old dental hygienist from Oshkosh, agreed.

"He's rude. He's arrogant. He's a loose cannon. He's insulting to women," Ruddy said.

A week before the primary, a poll run by Marquette University Law School showed Trump lagging Cruz by about 10 points -- a dramatic fall for the candidate who led in the same poll last month.

If Cruz sweeps all the delegates in Wisconsin, Trump will need to win 57 percent of the remaining delegates in other states to collect the 1,237 he needs to clinch the nomination. So far, he has won 48 percent of all delegates awarded. Wisconsin offers 42, putting it in the middle of the pack of primary prizes.