Could GOP be heading to Brokered Convention

Texas is part of the March 1st multi-state Super Tuesday primary.

Thursday night, former candidate Rick Perry suggested the vote count may not help identify a clear nominee.

That could open the door for what’s known as a brokered GOP convention in July and revive Perry's presidential aspirations. But Greg Abbott, who replaced Perry as Governor of Texas, thinks the political dust will settle next week.

After watching the GOP debate in Houston Thursday night, Governor Greg Abbott returned to Austin Friday to cast a ballot on the last day of early voting.  Abbott endorsed Ted Cruz a few days ago and while the Houston debate was a lot of things, Abbott said he remains committed to the Texas senator.

"Last night was both entertaining and clarifying and the clarifying part of it is that it was clear from the answers given from the stage last night is the only person who is a true committed conservative is Ted Cruz,” said Governor Abbott.

Next week governor Abbott is expected to tour the state with Cruz who Friday made a quick trip to Tennessee. In Fort Worth, Donald Trump announced that several days ago, he won the endorsement from former rival, Chris Christi.

"We shook hands and I said, let’s keep it a secret for the people of Texas..." said Trump.

Marco Rubio was also in the Motorplex and still taking swings at Trump.

"What we are dealing with here my friends is a con artist,” said Rubio.

Ben Carson spent Friday preparing for weekend appearances in Houston and Dallas. John Kasich was on his way to Memphis to start a campaign swing through Tennessee.

There's new speculation that none of the candidates will gain enough delegates to win the GOP nomination but Governor Abbott dismissed the notion of a brokered convention.

"It’s premature to talk about things like that,  we'll see what happens, I think we will continue to gain clarification about the pathway forward for just a handful of candidates after the super Tuesday election,” said Abbott.

Political analyst Brian Smith believes a GOP meltdown is a long shot.

"A brokered convention is like a snow day in Texas, very rare and few and far between,” said Smith.

But Smith isn't totally ruling one out.

"We’ve had a couple of close calls, 1968 for the Democrats, 1976 for the Republicans, 1980 for the Democrats again, but every time the person with the most votes coming out of the primaries got the nomination. So we've haven't had real good knock down dragged out brokered convention since the 1920's,” said Smith.

Smith expects a major campaign shake out will come immediately following Super Tuesday.   On March 8th another set of states will hold primaries that could solidify a clear front runner.

The gloves also seem to be coming off for the DNC. The primary process continues to favor Hillary Clinton. But Smith says Bernie Sanders could keep the nomination in question right up to the Democratic National Convention in late July.