Nevada hands Cruz another disappointment

With votes still remaining to be counted, Cruz was trailing Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for second place, and well behind the frontrunner, New York celebrity businessman Donald Trump. The Nevada caucuses marked the end of the February early primary state voting period. Next week’s March 1, Super Tuesday primary begins the national sprint for the 1,236 GOP delegates required to secure the Republican presidential nomination.

Absent a victory since defeating Trump in Iowa on Feb. 1, and coming off two consecutive defeats that were tough to swallow, Cruz was left to make a process argument for why he — not Rubio — is in the strongest position to dethrone Trump. “At this point we’ve had four primaries. History teaches us that nobody has ever won the nomination without winning one of the first three primaries. And there are only two people who have won one of the first three primaries,” Cruz told a sparsely attended Caucus Night party in Las Vegas.

“The undeniable reality that the first four states have shown is that the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign,” Cruz added. “The first four states have performed a vital function of narrowing this race and presenting a clear choice.” After winning Iowa, Cruz has finished third in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and now likely Nevada.

Cruz argued that next week’s nominating contests on ‘Super Tuesday’ will be the “most important night of this campaign” and added, “You can choose between two Washington dealmakers or one proven consistent conservative.” Texas is a super Tuesday state, and that was helping to buoy Cruz the turn of events in South Carolina and Nevada following a surprisingly strong third place finish in New Hampshire on Feb. 9.

“I think what we’re seeing is one candidate on the bottom and one on the top and they’re both attacking Ted and calling him liar and things like that, and I think that honesty and integrity is going to rise to the top of the pot and I think America is going to see Ted for what he is, a truth man fighting for the Constitution and fighting for America,” said Rob Bryant, 59, an Orange County, Calif., resident who was in Nevada volunteering for the senator. “When he moves off to Texas and super Tuesday we’re going to see a big difference.”

“I am optimistic; I am,” added Cruz campaign volunteer Judy Kimball, of Vancouver, Wash.

The days leading up to the caucus proved tumultuous for Cruz. The Texas senator announced on Monday that he axed Rick Tyler, his communications director, purportedly for spreading a story containing misleading information about Rubio.

The Cruz campaign also suffered under attacks from several of his opponents, including Trump, who claimed that Cruz fired Tyler “like a dog.” Cruz sought to bypass the criticism in his closing pitch to Nevadans.

“It’s been a strange cycle, a little bit like watching PT Barnum,” he said on Tuesday in Nevada. “But the time for that media noise is over. Now, it’s our time.”

The senator’s performance in the Silver State may have been bolstered by endorsements from leading libertarian Republicans, Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador and Michigan Rep. Justin Amash. Both are members of the House Freedom Caucus who formerly supported Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s presidential bid, but have switched their allegiances since Paul dropped out. Labrador made several appearances with Cruz in Nevada, but it failed to change the outcome of his campaign.

The Cruz campaign criticized Rubio’s performance in Nevada after the votes rolled in, arguing it showed the Florida senator’s Nevada firewall was broken. Rubio responded with a memo of its own knocking Cruz for an undesirable finish despite pooring money and manpower into the race and holding five event across the state on Caucus Day. Rubio held one campaign in Las Vegas Tuesday morning, and then flew to the Midwest for campaign rallies.

Cruz heads to Arkansas on Wednesday.