Stephen Dunn | Getty Images. Billionaire Mark Cuban took time out of a back-and forth with Piers Morgan on Twitter to bash Sen. Ted Cruz and Republican nominee Donald Trump.

A group of dissident Republicans refusing to support Donald Trump have courted a diverse slate of potential candidates to mount a potential third party bid against the putative nominee, The Washington Post reported on Saturday—a group that includes another outspoken billionaire.



Conservative opinion writers William Kristol and Erick Erickson have been part of the effort, the publication reported, as has former GOP nominee Mitt Romney. In recent months, Romney has emerged as a prominent voice in the movement to derail Trump's White House ambitions.

The Post added that the list of candidates the group has fielded include names like Ohio governor John Kasich, who recently ended his own bid for the Republican nomination; Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, who has also become a strident critic of Trump; and billionaire Mark Cuban. According to the report, Cuban was approached because of his possible ability to connect with voters—and his own blustery persona that can match Trump's.

A representative for the Trump campaign did not immediately reply to CNBC's requests for comment.

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However, the report added that most of the response to the 3rd party effort has been tepid at best. Cuban was quoted by The Post as saying that he didn't "see it happening," and given the closeness of the election, there "isn't enough time."

Despite establishment calls to coalesce around Trump, Sasse is part of a prominent clutch of Republicans who are refusing to support him, despite the possibility that such opposition could result in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ascending to the Oval Office.

In a lengthy Facebook post recently, Sasse rejected both the candidacies of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Trump, saying that he would seek a third option in November.

There is little love lost between the real estate mogul and Kristol, the publisher of the influential conservative magazine The Weekly Standard. Before Trump romped through the GOP primaries, Kristol warned that the GOP would "have to start a new party" if he were the nominee.



When Trump announced his bid last year, Cuban spoke favorably about the billionaire real estate mogul's candidacy. Yet just this week, Cuban—the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and himself an outspoken billionaire—reportedly described Trump in vulgar terms, saying he was "like hat guy who'll walk into the bar and say anything" to get a woman's attention.

The Post reported that other names on the 3rd party wish list include former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, retired Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, and former Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn.



The full report can be found on The Washington Post's website.





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