Debate day: Trump's ready for Rubio, Cruz to bring it on
DETROIT (AP) — Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio head into the 11th debate of the Republican presidential race Thursday in an ever-more urgent scramble to take down Donald Trump — with an ever-more nervous GOP establishment wishing them luck.
[...] any number of predictions that GOP voters would coalesce around one anti-Trump as the field narrowed have come and gone without a change in the overall dynamic.
Mitt Romney, the party's 2012 nominee, on Thursday made a rare public appearance to denounce Trump as "a phony" who is "playing the American public for suckers."
In advance of Thursday's debate, Rubio signaled his intent to continue his efforts to unmask Trump as a "con artist" who hasn't laid out serious policy proposals.
Rubio dismissed Cruz' Super Tuesday trifecta as inconsequential and pinned his own hopes on a March 15 victory in his home state of Florida, which awards all 99 of its delegates to the winner.
Speaking to reporters in Detroit in advance of the debate, Kasich said that if he wins Ohio, the Republican primary will likely end with a contested convention in Cleveland.