Ted Cruz is counting on picking off other GOP candidates one at a time as tea party conservatives, libertarians, and evangelicals coalesce behind a single candidate: Him. With Scott Walker out, Cruz now sees Donald Trump and Ben Carson as the chief impediments to his strategy. Knocking them off would leave just him and whoever becomes the establishment candidate. Shane Goldmacher
reports:
To the Cruz campaign’s delight, Trump and Carson have begun aiming at each other, with Trump questioning Carson’s religion and energy level over the weekend, and Carson retorting that he’d worked through 20-hour surgeries: “Doesn’t require a lot of jumping up and down and screaming, but it does require a lot of concentration.”
Cruz has drafted behind Trump for months, hoping to sweep up his supporters when what many have seen as an inevitable fall comes. But increasingly the Cruz campaign is preparing for Trump to remain a force through the primaries.
Carson, on the other hand, the Cruz campaign thinks will fade as scrutiny intensifies. Plus, Cruz intends to box out the retired neurosurgeon by winning over the movement conservatives who are desperate to unite behind a single candidate early in 2016, after back-to-back cycles nominating a more moderate Republican, who, they believe, failed to get out the Christian vote.
“It’s almost like a fable, like the Holy Grail that nobody can ever do,” said Roe, the campaign manager, of uniting the movement. “We have the unique chance this time to pull it off.”
It's not an impossible proposition, though it was only a couple months ago that Walker aides were gushing about their candidate having everything it took to appeal to both social and tea party conservatives, as well as the establishment. That didn't work out so well.
It is worth noting, however, that Cruz currently has more cash on hand than any other GOP candidate. That puts him in better stead than both of his potential establishment rivals: Marco Rubio and Jeb! Bush.
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