Following his devastating loss in the Indiana primary last week, Cruz spent half an hour announcing on live TV that he was dropping out of the race.
"From the beginning I’ve said that I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory. Tonight I’m sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed," he said. "With a heavy heart but boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign."
After an exhausting campaign season, many wondered how the Senator would use his downtime. On Tuesday, Cruz indicated that he’d spent the last week considering the relaunch of his presidential bid.
"We launched this campaign intending to win. The reason we suspended our campaign was that with the Indiana loss, I felt there was no path to victory," he told conservative radio host Glenn Beck.
"If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly."
Cruz is apparently holding out hope that he could pull an upset in Tuesday’s Nebraska primary, since his name is still on the ballot. This seems extraordinarily unlikely, as evidenced by Cruz’s own comments from a week ago. If a win in Nebraska could change the outcome of the race, then the Senator’s "path to victory" wouldn’t have been "foreclosed" in the first place.
Cruz’s failure to come to terms with his own political reality is notable, given that there are Republican primaries in not one, but two states on Tuesday. The Senator seems to be under the impression that a Nebraska win would be enough to carry him through a decisive failure in West Virginia, despite both states having roughly the same delegate count.
Whether or not Cruz makes the unprecedented decision to relaunch a failed presidential bid, he remains hesitant about endorsing the billionaire who will likely beat him to the nomination.
"This is a choice every voter is going to have to make," he said when asked if he would support Donald Trump. "I would note, it’s not a choice we as voters have to make today."
Many would be thrilled if Cruz chose to reenter the race. While few Republicans prefer his faux-righteous Christian indignation to Trump’s simple megalomania, the Senator did provide a certain amount of comedic relief.
Having already been a more-than-fair sport, his wife Heidi Cruz may have had all she can take of her husband’s presidential ambitions.
— Elizabeth Plank (@feministabulous) May 4, 2016
If the American people can’t have Ted Cruz back, can they at least have Ben "Pyramids-Built-as-Grain-Silos" Carson?
