Scott Walker: Contested convention would lead to nominee who's not currently in race
A contested Republican National Convention in July could lead to a GOP nominee who's not currently running for president, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker predicted Thursday.
"I think if it's an open convention, it's very likely it would be someone who's not currently running," Walker told reporters Thursday, according to The Capital Times newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin.
"I mean, who knows," he added. "I think any of us who comment on this election have to qualify that almost every prediction's been off, so it's hard to predict anything."
Walker, who dropped out of the presidential race last September, has not yet endorsed a Republican candidate but told reporters he intends to soon. The governor hinted at backing Ted Cruz for president in a interview with Sykes broadcast on Wednesday.
According to the report, Walker said he receives frequent phone calls from people involved in Ted Cruz's and John Kasich's presidential campaigns, but hasn't heard anything from Donald Trump's campaign.
While Speaker Paul Ryan has rejected the idea of running for president this cycle, an ally of his, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, said in a C-SPAN interview Thursday that Ryan could wind up being "a figure of destiny."
"I take him at his word. I don't think he has any desire to be the presidential nominee. If he did, he would have run for it," he said, according to The Hill. "But sometimes you can be a figure of destiny, and he was very much that in the Speaker's race."
According to CBS News' latest count, Trump is leading the GOP field with 740 delegates, Cruz has picked up 462 and Kasich has 143. A candidate needs 1,237 delegates in order to win the GOP nomination.