CNN to host GOP field in Milwaukee before Wisconsin primary

CNN announced Thursday it is hosting the GOP White House hopefuls for a Milwaukee town hall one week before Wisconsin’s Republican presidential primary.

Anchor Anderson Cooper will moderate the event, CNN said in a statement, which will take place during a primetime broadcast next Tuesday, March 29.

{mosads}CNN added that GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) will field questions from Wisconsin voters before they go to the polls on April 5.

Trump leads the GOP presidential field by 5 points there, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.

An Emerson College survey released Wednesday, however, found that Cruz sneaks past Trump in the Badger State. Cruz leads Trump 36 percent to the billionaire’s 35 percent, it said, while Kasich trails the duo with 19 percent of his own.

Emerson College polled 439 likely GOP primary voters between March 20 and March 22 for the sampling. It has a 4.6 percent margin of error, meaning it found Cruz and Trump statistically tied in Wisconsin.

The remaining GOP presidential primary voting contests are becoming increasingly fierce as the remaining number of delegates shrinks nationwide.

Trump leads with 739 delegates, according to the latest RealClearPolitics delegate count, followed by Cruz’s 465 and Kasich’s 143. Wisconsin awards 42 delegates in its winner-take-all voting contest in just under two weeks.

At least 1,237 delegates are needed for a candidate to lock down the nomination before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.

Reports emerged on Wednesday that Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) plans on endorsing either Cruz or Kasich before his state’s voting contest. Walker strongly implied that evening that he is leaning toward Cruz, however, arguing that Kasich “statistically” cannot become the Republican presidential nominee.

Walker suspended his own White House run last October, arguing that the crowded GOP presidential field was helping Trump’s campaign prosper. At its apex, the Republican field contained 17 contenders last year.