Donald Trump ended Thursday night’s debate the same way he began it, calling for wary Republican leaders to unite behind his candidacy.

“I think frankly the Republican establishment — or whatever you want to call it — should embrace what is happening,” Trump said in his opening statement. “We’re having millions of extra people join, we are going to beat the Democrats.”


For Trump, it's part of a pivot toward the general election, where he'd want the full might of the Republican Party behind him in a faceoff with the Democratic nominee. And Trump argues the party is better off with him as well, saying its leaders should embrace the enthusiasm and new membership he has brought to the party.

Trump, after delivering a mild-mannered debate performance and avoiding the spats with his fellow candidates that have defined past debates, returned to that message at the debate’s close.

“The Republican Party has a great chance to embrace millions of people that it’s never known before. They’re coming by the millions,” Trump said. “We should seize that opportunity. These are great people.”

While national Republican leaders remain deeply worried about the prospect of Trump as the party’s standard bearer in November, he has begun to pick up endorsements from Republican elected officials, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions. Others, including Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, have said they would not support Trump.

Before the debate Thursday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus declared unequivocally that the RNC will support the nominee, whoever that may be.

"I want to get something really clear, because there's been a lot of talk about this. This party is going to support the nominee, whoever that is, 100 percent. There's no question about that,” Priebus said. “These candidates are competing to see who is going to be the nominee that joins the Republican National Committee, the Republican Party, all of you, the conservatives, the tea party…are going to come together and unify in Cleveland and get behind that nominee. That's what we do as Republicans.”

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have made similar pledges to support the party’s eventual nominee, though both have also condemned aspects of Trump’s rhetoric, including his reluctance in a recent interview to disavow white supremacist David Duke.

Beyond Trump, only Texas Senator Ted Cruz has a viable path to secure the nomination before the party’s convention in Cleveland. Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. John Kasich, who could only win the nomination at a brokered convention, argue that it is entirely legitimate to capture the nomination in that manner. Cruz and Trump, naturally, disagree.

"You know, there are some in Washington who are having fevered dreams of a brokered convention,” Cruz said. “They're unhappy with how the people are voting and they want to parachute in their favorite Washington candidate to be the nominee. I think that would be an absolute disaster. We need to respect the will of the voters.”

Cruz, who remains unpopular with many Senate colleagues, may soon become that “favorite Washington candidate” if Rubio and Kasich are forced from the race by losses in their home states on Tuesday. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who recently joked that Cruz is so disliked by his fellow senators that one of them could kill him with impunity, has said the party may have to rally around him as an alternative to Trump.

Trump’s calls for unity, in combination with his tempered rhetoric, could signal a shift to a general election strategy. Trump has already made clear that he intends to contest traditionally Democratic states like Michigan and New York by appealing to blue collar voters who are frustrated by stagnant wages and feel abandoned by “the establishment.” His wins in primary contests as different as Mississippi and Michigan, Nevada and Massachusetts seem to underscore that argument.

Eliza Collins contributed to this story.