Somewhere, David Dewhurst is laughing. Sen. Ted Cruz has suspended his campaign for the Republican Party presidential nomination.
At what he had hoped would be a victory rally in Indianapolis, the junior senator from Texas absorbed the fact that he had suffered a 16-point loss to Donald Trump. Cruz announced his exit from the race thusly: “From the beginning, I’ve said that I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory. Tonight, I’m sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed.”
He then concluded his withdrawal speech by accidentally punching and elbowing his wife in the face.
Cruz’s campaign has always seemed headed towards this moment. His presence at this point was solely related to the fact that he hadn’t dropped out yet, unlike more seasoned figures like New Jersey’s Chris Christie and Florida’s Marco Rubio. While he had practically zero support among the GOP establishment (former House Speaker John Boehner calling him “Lucifer in the flesh,” for example) his campaign flailed on in the desperate belief that, at some point, the primary electorate would tire of Trump’s quasi-fascistic ramblings and turn to a more reasoned (only by comparison) alternative.
As tonight proved, that moment never came.
After weeks trailing against a candidate that many Republicans can’t abide, Cruz’s campaign entered a death spiral this week. Gallup polling showed that 45% of likely Republican voters had a negative view of him – up 10 points in a month. Then he bizarrely and presumptively announced failed fellow presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina as his running mate (then ignored her as she literally fell off the stump). Then there was calling a basketball hoop a ring, his wife publicly stating that he was not the Zodiac Killer, all served up with the interpersonal awkwardness that has become his trademark (as shown in a pre-election soft sell to Austin’s tech crowd). Seriously, is anyone surprised that he’s gone?
In a statement, Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa wrote, “Like most of the Republican Party, Cruz has been obsessed with fringe issues and the politics of fear. But this time he met his bigoted match.” Turning to the GOP’s nominee-apparent, he added, “It’s time for Republicans to get real comfortable with dangerous Donald Trump being the voice and face of their party. It’s time for lyin’ Ted Cruz to start preparing for his 2018 Republican primary for Senate.”
Hinojosa’s gloating comments do point to one truth for Texas Republicans. Last year, they had two presidential hopefuls, Cruz and former Governor Rick Perry. The latter had burned out on the national stage in 2012, in part, because he hadn’t fought a real campaign in over a decade at the state level, and so was utterly ill-prepared for the big game. This time around, his boosters claimed he had learned from his errors, but that was wishful thinking.
There’s probably a similar lesson to be learned by Cruz. The former Texas solicitor general, with no legislative or elected experience, he only became a senator because Lt. Gov. Dewhurst botched his own Senate run: His decision to push through gerrymandering of the state house pushed back the primaries, and allowed Cruz to come up on his right as the no-holds-barred, no-negotiations conservative. But, like Perry, he had no clue how to win the big fight.
Now the GOP nomination comes down to Trump and the sole remaining outside hope of the establishment, Ohio governor John Kasich. But with Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus calling for party unity behind presumptive nominee Trump, he’s an even bigger long shot than Cruz winning a contested convention.
This article appears in April 29 • 2016.
