Ted Cruz does little to tamp down Super Tuesday expectations

Among voters who identify as Republicans when given the choice to bolt for the Tea Party, the candidates were relatively even: Cruz had 32 percent to Trump’s 30 percent. Abbott called Cruz “a Constitutionalist whose judgment I trust to appoint the right judges to the United States Supreme Court” in a video message.

“I believe we’re going to do well”, said Cruz to reporters on Wednesday after his campaign rally in Houston. Cruz’s deflating third-place finish in SC – where he unexpectedly lost the evangelical vote to Trump – landed like a thud on his activist allies, many of whom watched the election returns together in California at a weekend-long meeting of the Council for National Policy.

Trump later added, “I’d like to really win in Texas”. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Cruz’s outlook in the Lone Star State. They were polled by phone and over the internet.

The odds look long for Marco Rubio, who is trailing Trump by 21 points in Florida, according to the Real Clear Politics poll average. Texas is the largest of the Super Tuesday states voting next week. “The liar, liar, liar challenge has stuck because Cruz exudes determination that many interpret as a desire to win at any cost”.

The rest of the candidates were far behind: Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the race after the SC primary, had 6 percent; John Kasich, 5 percent; and Ben Carson, 4 percent.

Overall, Trump has 81 delegates, and Cruz and Rubio have 17 apiece. Of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination, 595 are at stake that day. Trump won the last three, and is projected to perform well in Super Tuesday states.

But people in 11 other states, many in the south, are voting too. In recent weeks, his silence had become more noticeable to Cruz supporters eager to see the senator shore up his home-state support with the clock ticking until its nominating contest.

“They keep forgetting that when people drop out, we’re going to get a lot of votes”, he said.

Nevada’s caucusing played out in schools, community centers and places of worship. Count Tracy Brigida, fed up after her husband was laid off from his mining job, among those caucusing for Trump.

“I want a businessman to run the biggest business in the world”, Brigida said as she caucused at a Las Vegas high school. “He hasn’t said anything stupid or insane… which is really what I think the country needs”, Haight said.

The University of Texas/Texas Tribune Internet survey of 1,200 registered voters was conducted from February 12 to February 19 and has an overall margin of error of +/- 3.48 percentage points.