After a bitter primary battle that
culminated with Ted Cruz being booed off the stage at the Republican
National Convention, the Texas senator says he will vote for Donald
Trump.
In a 741-word Facebook post
Friday, Cruz wrote that he made the decision because he wants to “keep
his word” to vote for the Republican nominee and because he finds
Hillary Clinton “wholly unacceptable.”
It was hardly a full-throated
endorsement. Cruz ended his post saying, “[I]f you don’t want to see a
Hillary Clinton presidency, I encourage you to vote for him.”
It’s a remarkable turn for Cruz, who
declined to endorse or express support for Trump even as late as the
Republican convention in July in Cleveland. There, he was given a
speaking slot and, in a scene almost out of professional wrestling, was
booed off the stage as Trump emerged in the crowd and waved to
supporters.
Trump and Cruz have had a bumpy
relationship. Early on, they had something of an alliance, declining to
attack each other in early debates. But the bromance did not last. Cruz
wound up winning the Iowa caucuses, and the acrimony became so strong
that Donald Trump accused Cruz’s father, Rafael, of being involved with
the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
Trump also insulted Cruz’s wife, Heidi,
retweeting an unflattering picture of her alongside a modeling photo of
his own wife, Melania Trump, and threatening on Twitter to “spill the
beans” about Mrs. Cruz without explaining what he meant.
The move may be a recognition by Cruz
that his future is limited at the presidential level without Trump
supporters, despite an earlier calculus that if Trump were to lose in a
blowout, those voters would look toward Cruz in four years.
Some of Cruz’s supporters are expressing
disappointment with the senator’s change of heart. On Twitter,
conservative columnist and talk show host Steve Deace called the move
the “worst political miscalculation of my lifetime” and said he
suspected the move would cause more #NeverTrump voters to “dig in their
heels deeper than be moved by Cruz’s move.”
“Cruz has nothing to gain from this, and everything to lose,” Cruz’s Iowa co-chair, Joel Kurtinitis, said in a message to NPR.
“His brand is based on principled
resistance. Submissive conformity to Trump — a man who personally
slandered Cruz’s family and hasn’t apologized — just cements Trump as
the unopposed alpha in the GOP and hangs Cruz’s conservative resistance
out to dry.”
“This endorsement will not convince
#NeverTrump folks to change our minds about The Donald,” he continued,
“but we may well be forced to reconsider our support for Sen. Cruz.”
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