Could Republicans hold a brokered convention?

(FOX 5 NEWS) - Donald Trump may have been the biggest winner Tuesday night, but he is still not a sure thing to be the Republican nominee.

After his win in Ohio last night, Gov. John Kasich is staying in the race. So is Sen. Ted Cruz. That means both will likely continue to siphon delegates away from a Trump majority.

Trump needs to win more than half of the remaining delegates to get to the magic number of 1,237 by the end of primary season on June 7. If he doesn't, that means a brokered convention in Cleveland come July

Lina Newton is an associate professor of political science at Hunter College. She says that the Republican Party does not want to have a brokered convention. She says that all the time the GOP wastes trying to unify the party takes away from fighting the Democratic nominee.

In the event of a brokered convention, delegates will hold a first round of voting in which most of the delegates would be pledged to whoever won in their state's primary, and the candidates could try to win over a handful of undecided delegates. But if no majority emerges in round one, many of the delegates become free agents. That is when the horse trading and backroom deals begin.

It doesn't happen often. The Democrats had their last brokered convention back in 1952 when Adlai Stevenson was nominated. Republicans had one in 1948 with Thomas Dewey. Both went on to lose in the general election.