Head of state GOP criticizes Cruz for not endorsing Trump

“He was my guy, but my guy made a pledge to endorse the nominee”, said David Chung, a Cedar Rapids delegate who came to Cleveland hoping to be part of “an insurgency” to get Cruz nominated if Trump’s support faltered. “There is a lot of unity in our delegation”. Trump’s son Eric called it “classless”. Ted Cruz on Thursday got an earful from former and current Texas officials unhappy about his convention speech.

“Cruz was smug, and it was a slap in the face to Mr. Trump and to the convention”, said Trump delegate Mark Fratella, a teacher from Evanston at the IL delegation breakfast.

Vander Plaats said Trump helped himself by the way he handled the situation – allowing Cruz to address the convention without stipulating an endorsement and later tweeting that it was no big deal when he didn’t get one from the Texas senator.

“And that pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, I’m going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and my father”, he added.

Cruz’ actions drew condemnation from Republicans, who questioned whether the senator had torpedoed his political future. “He’s politically dead”, said B.J. Van Gundy, a longtime GOP activist in Georgia.

Greg Peterson of Long Island, now serving as a commissioner on the state Board of Elections, said he was among the loudest members of the delegation shouting Cruz down.

Alternate delegates react to Senator Ted Cruz’s speech.

“I expect to hear Trump build on the messages of the last several days and look towards the general election now”, Grabins said. “However, I have to say it’s not about Donald Trump”. The focus should be about “party unity and the risk that our nation faces if Hillary Clinton is elected as president”, he said. “It’s about the United States of America”.

When Cruz began to wrap up his speech, withholding his endorsement and telling Republicans to “vote [their] conscience”, he was drowned out by a chorus of boos from the crowd at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

Republican National Convention delegate Bob Evnen said Thursday that Cruz’s decision was “unfortunate”, considering that Trump gave him a high-profile speaking slot in an effort to unify the party.

“I don’t think it does any good for the party or undecided voters for them to be talking about anybody other than Hillary Clinton”, Walker said.