“A vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump,” Cruz told reporters Saturday in Utah. “I don’t know if John Kasich is perhaps campaigning to be Donald Trump’s vice president, but he has been eliminated mathematically from having any chance of being the nominee.”

Cruz was similarly dismissive a day earlier in Arizona, where he told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Kasich’s role in the nominating process at this point “is essentially as a spoiler.”

“There’s no good reason,” Cruz replied when Hannity asked why Kasich is still in the race. Alluding to Kasich’s first win, which came Tuesday in his home state of Ohio, Cruz added, “When you go for one for 27, that’s a problem.”

As Cruz’s complaints about Kasich reached a new volume, the Ohio governor’s campaign fired back Saturday, saying that it was the Texas senator who was playing spoiler.