Cruz cruises to victory in home state of Texas
STAFFORD, Texas — Ted Cruz needed a big boost from his home state of Texas to stay afloat in the contentious Republican primary race.
On Tuesday, Texas Republicans obliged.
Cruz won his home state by a double-digit margin and will share the state's 155 delegates mostly with Donald Trump. Marco Rubio, Ben Carson and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will gain few if any delegates from Texas, as the state mandates a 20% threshold to win delegates.
The Lone Star win keeps Cruz's presidential hopes afloat against the political juggernaut of Trump, who won seven more states across the USA Tuesday. Cruz garnered three wins: Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska.
Cruz thanked his supporters here at the Redneck Country Club, a sprawling Texas-themed music venue and bar 17 miles southwest of Houston, where Cruz grew up.
Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide
"God bless the Lone Star State," Cruz said, flanked by his family and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, adding: "Tonight this campaign enters a new phase."
He urged other GOP candidates who haven't won any states or many delegates — a not-so-subtle directive to Rubio — to quit the race and unite behind him to face Trump. He also called on voters who have backed other candidates to support him.
"Head-to-head our campaign beats Donald Trump resoundingly," Cruz said. "But for that to happen we must come together."
Since entering the presidential race last year, Cruz’s campaign strategy seemed to rely on raising lots of money, which he’s done, courting evangelical Christian voters and winning big in his home state of Texas.
GOP races more heated in TX primary
Trump racks up 7 Super Tuesday wins
He’s since lost evangelical voters to Trump in key states, like South Carolina. But in Texas, Cruz delivered.
Hundreds of supporters filed into the club decked with fire pits, mounted stag heads, a Lone Star beer-bottle chandelier and a full-size replica of the General Lee, the '69 Dodge Charger from the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard.
A riotous cheer erupted when newscasts on mounted TVs called Texas and, later, Oklahoma, for Cruz.
"Very exciting," said Kamara Heussner, 51, a small business owner from Fort Bend County, Texas. "He's the best man for the job. He does what's right, even when it's hard." Asked about his chances against Trump, she said: "[Cruz] should win. We have to stop the Trump train. There are no tracks in front of it, and there are no tracks behind it."
Neeve Kibodeaux, 50, of Pearland, Texas, said she's confident the Texas victory will carry Cruz to the Republican nomination, despite Trump's multiple wins Tuesday night.
"He's going to win all the way," she said. "He's the only true conservative in the race."
Since Cruz's victory in the Iowa caucuses last month, Rubio and Trump have attacked him on the debate stage and in rallies, questioning his integrity and blunting Cruz’s momentum, said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University.
“Between Iowa and South Carolina, everyone turned their cannons on him,” he said. “He was taking fire from everybody. That had a real impact on his image nationally.”
The Texas GOP primary is based on a proportional system where 44 delegates are awarded according to statewide results and 108 are allocated based on how the candidates do in the state’s congressional districts. (Three delegates act as superdelegates and aren’t obligated to reveal their alliance until the state Republican convention in May.)
Winning Texas "allows him to live and fight another day,” Jones said. “That’s important. You don’t want to minimize that.”
Kellyanne Conway, a pollster and president of a pro-Cruz super PAC, said Cruz’s victory in Texas puts pressure on Kasich and Rubio, a Florida senator, to win their respective home states. It also makes Cruz the decisive candidate to take on Trump, even if it's through a brokered convention in Cleveland in July, she said.
"The other two front-runners are completely in the mosh pit," Conway said, referring to escalating personal attacks between Trump and Rubio. "Sen. Cruz is the last adult standing."