Cruz had the worst week
Desperation, thy name is Ted Cruz.
The Texas senator spent this week doing anything and everything he could think of to blunt the momentum Donald Trump has built with sweeping wins in six primaries over the past two weeks.
First was the alliance – announced April 24 – between Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Under the agreement, Kasich would stand down in Indiana’s Tuesday primary and Cruz would do the same in Oregon (May 17) and New Mexico (June 7). The goal was clear: Unite the anti-Trump vote in hopes of keeping the real estate mogul from the 1,237 delegates he needs to be the party’s nominee.
Within hours of the alliance’s debut, it was already on shaky ground, with Kasich telling his supporters in Indiana on Monday morning to still vote for him and insisting he wasn’t trying to do anything to stop Trump. By Thursday, Cruz was insisting there was no “alliance.”
Cruz followed up the swelling success of that moment with another transparent attempt to change the narrative of the race before Indiana’s primary: He named Carly Fiorina as his vice presidential running mate.
Or, more accurately, he signaled that if he won the GOP nomination at some point between now and the end of the Republican National Convention in mid-July, it was his intention to pick Fiorina. Which was sort of weird. But not as weird as the fact that Cruz spoke for 30 minutes before he actually, you know, got to the point.
The Fiorina pick was seen as either presumptuous or head-scratching (or both!) in most circles, and, even on the day it was announced, didn’t move the needle as Cruz had to hope it might.
Even when Cruz got legitimately good news last week, it fell well short of expectations. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, R, kind of, sort of endorsed Cruz on Friday, but he also heaped praise on Trump in the process and made clear that he wouldn’t be doing much other than voting for Cruz in the final few days of the primary race.
Add it all up and here’s what you get: a candidate desperately trying to make it happen. And it is not happening.
This story was originally published May 1, 2016 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Cruz had the worst week."