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 In a Facebook post, Romney said a vote for Cruz in Utah's caucus
on Tuesday was the best way to prevent Trump from locking down the
nomination, which would give opponents a chance to select another
candidate at the party's July convention.
"The only way we can reach an open convention is for Senator Cruz to
be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as
possible," Romney wrote.
Romney did not offer any praise for Cruz, who emerged as a favorite
of the party's most ardent conservatives after clashing with party
leaders in Washington. Romney did not say whether or not he would
campaign with Cruz, a first-term senator from Texas.
Trump responded quickly. "Mitt Romney is a mixed up man who doesn't
have a clue. No wonder he lost!" he wrote on Twitter.
Cruz, acknowledging the tepid nature of Romney's support, said the
pledged vote enforces the idea that his campaign is the only one
that can beat Trump, likening a vote for Ohio Governor John Kasich,
the third remaining Republican contender, to tacit support for
Trump.
 "In my book, when someone says ‘I’m voting for you, and I encourage
everyone else to vote for you,’ that’s pretty darn good," Cruz, a
self-styled Washington outsider, told reporters in Arizona. "And
I’ll take that and take that happily." Arizona also holds its
nominating contest on Tuesday.
"As Mitt Romney observed today, if you want to beat Donald Trump,
Cruz is the only campaign that can do it. That’s why he’s voting for
me in Utah," Cruz said.
Romney has emerged as one of the most prominent critics of Trump,
the billionaire businessman and reality-TV star who has become the
surprise front-runner in the battle to secure the Republican
nomination for the Nov. 8 election. Romney, who lost to Democratic
President Barack Obama in 2012, called Trump a "fraud" and a
dangerous demagogue who would lose to Hillary Clinton, the
Democratic Party front-runner, in November. "Today, there is a
contest between Trumpism and Republicanism," Romney wrote, adding
that Trump has encouraged racism, misogyny and violence. "I am
repulsed by each and every one of these," he wrote.
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Kasich's campaign called Romney's turn to Cruz the result of "bad
political advice." "This is just the old establishment trying again
to game the political system, but John Kasich's defeated the
Republican establishment his entire career," the campaign said.
Romney's support for Cruz comes a day after U.S. Senator Lindsey
Graham threw his support behind the Texas senator, saying in similar
fashion that Cruz has the best chance of stopping Trump, even though
he thinks Kasich would have a better chance of winning in November's
general election.
Trump has continued to notch victories in the state-by-state
nominating process as Republicans have failed to unite behind Cruz
or Kasich. At this point, those who oppose Trump say their best bet
is to prevent him from securing the 1,237 delegates he needs to lock
up the nomination before the convention in Cleveland. So far, Trump
has won 678 delegates.
Cruz would need to win 81 percent of the remaining delegates to
reach a majority, according to the Cook Political Report. It is
impossible for Kasich to reach 1,237 delegates, according to the
nonpartisan election tracker.
Romney said Kasich has a "solid record" as a governor and he would
have voted for him in Ohio last Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Grant McCool and
Leslie Adler)
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