Indiana Trumps Cruz
May 4, 2016
Yesterday, May 3, Indiana citizens voted in one of the year’s later presidential primaries. The late date of the primary gave it a certain amount of weight, despite the relatively low number of delegates at stake. Presidential candidates have been rolling up delegates for months now, and Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump have established firm leads. Clinton lost to rival Bernie Sanders yesterday, but Sanders remains a long shot to overtake Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Trump’s campaign, however, took a huge leap in Indiana, where Hoosier Republicans handed him the primary on a platter. The results forced Republican Ted Cruz out of the race, all but guaranteeing Trump that party’s nomination.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz ended his presidential campaign on May 3, 2016.
Credit: Peter Stevens (licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Republican Ted Cruz, trailing Trump by about 500 delegates, put his last best effort into Indiana. He hoped his ultra-Conservative brand would inspire religious voters to lean his way. He hoped the “stop Trump” campaign would sway voters toward him as the only Trump alternative. He hoped his last-ditch swipes at Trump would teeter fence-sitting Republicans to fall his way. He hoped that the naming of Carly Fiorina as his prospective running mate might pull people to his side. Cruz may have convinced some undecided people to vote for him, but it was not enough, and his effort was in vain. A strong majority of Republican voters—some 54 percent—stuck with Trump, who won the state’s 57 delegates.
The Indiana victory gave Trump 1,053 delegates, just 184 short of the Republican nomination goal of 1,237. With Cruz’s numbers flagging in other states, particularly in delegate-rich California (among the final primaries on June 7), the reality of his campaign’s chances became impossible to ignore. Cruz just wasn’t going to catch up. As enough results came in to make the end clear, Cruz stood sorrowfully behind a microphone and told his supporters it was all over, that he was dropping out of the race. “Together we left it all on the field in Indiana,” he said. “We gave it everything we’ve got. But the voters chose another path.”
