Jeb Bush Endorser Tommy Thompson Predicts Brokered GOP Convention

"I think Jeb Bush has got the best chance to come out of it and become the nominee of the Republican Party."

A prominent Jeb Bush supporter says he believes there's going to be a brokered Republican convention.

Tommy Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor who went on to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush, told WTMJ radio on Friday, "I think when the campaign gets going, and you got to realize in the month of March, there is going to be 28 states are going to vote, Super Tuesday is going to have 14. I don't know if any other candidate except Jeb Bush, that's going to have an organization and the money to put up a strong campaign in those 14 states.

"And I think he's going to come out of the 14 states with not enough delegates, because I don't think any candidate between now and the Republican convention is going to get the necessary number, 11,088, to get the nomination," he added. "I think this was the first time since 1976, in Kansas City, when Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan were going at it. And I was at that convention, I think the same thing is going to happen in 2016."

Thompson endorsed Bush in early October. He ran unsuccessfully for the senate in Wisconsin in 2012.

Thompson predicted Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and either Ben Carson, Donald Trump, or Carly Fiorina would be a contender at convention time along with Bush.

"I think we are going to have a convention in which nobody has enough votes, and I think you are going to go there, I think one of the three, Carly, Donald Trump or Dr. Carson, are still going to be in," he said. "I think Senator Cruz is still going to be in, I think Jeb Bush is going to be in, I think John Kasich is going to be in, and I think at that particular point in time, I think the party, the organization, I think Jeb Bush has got the best chance to come out of it and become the nominee of the Republican Party."

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