Ted Cruz has a big decision to make. As
the last major candidate to stand against Trump in the primaries (apart from
Kasich, who mainly just acted as a spoiler), there will be increasing pressure
on him, even more than others, to support the nominee against Hillary Clinton.
By this point, two months after he suspended his presidential campaign, it’s
clear Cruz is not just taking a break from electoral politics in general. He’s
been active in endorsing and campaigning with other candidates across the
country, most recently throwing his support behind Darryl Glenn in Colorado and
Marco Rubio’s reelection in Florida. But the silence on endorsing Trump is
becoming increasingly significant.
It speaks to Cruz’s character and
strength of his principles to hold out even this long. There are a few fellow
GOP senators who are avowedly #NeverTrump, but they are neither former primary
opponents of the likely nominee, nor actively pursuing another presidential run
in the near future. As the current rumblings point toward another Cruz run for
the White House in 2020, following his 2018 Senate reelection bid, the pressure
will be on from the RNC, Republican leadership in Congress, and many GOP voters
to get behind the nominee this cycle if he wants any future in national elected
office.
I think the best path forward for Cruz,
with regard to Trump, is to continue to hold out on an endorsement until the
convention. There is still the possibility, however remote, that the delegates
will choose someone else as the nominee—maybe even Cruz himself, as many of
those same delegates are personally loyal to him. Either way, the fact that
there won’t be an official nominee until the middle of July gives Cruz some
breathing room politically, and an effective cover in interviews in which the
subject of a Trump endorsement is sure to come up.
After the convention, assuming Trump is
the nominee, the pressure to support him will grow far more intense. Everything
he said about Cruz, from the Lyin’ Ted smears to the attacks on his father and
wife, will be ignored by party leadership and voters alike who merely want to
present a united front against the Democrats for the general election. The need
to win will for many people outweigh both principle and loyalty to one’s
family, and Cruz will have to walk an increasingly fine line.
At some point after the convention, Cruz
will likely need to offer some kind of pro forma endorsement of Trump. This, I
think, is the best way of balancing his integrity and political future: By
giving Trump his formal support, however half-hearted, Cruz neutralizes much of
the later attacks he would otherwise endure from leadership and ordinary voters
alike, who would at least partly blame his refusal to support the nominee for
his eventual loss, and hence for the Clinton presidency that followed.
At the same time, by waiting until after
the convention, and only giving a tepid, formal endorsement without much actual
campaign assistance, Cruz reserves the loyalty of the many #NeverTrumpers he
won over during the primary, and whose support he will need as much as that of
Trump voters for a future presidential run.
Obviously, there are dangers of
alienating members of both sides in walking such a thin line. I personally
supported Cruz throughout the primary, and would love to see him take a bold
stand against Trump, electoral future be damned. But Ted Cruz is not a man we
can afford to lose, and if a pro forma endorsement of Trump is the price we
have to pay for a future Cruz White House, then it’s a disappointment I would
be happy to endure. After all, we
already know what he really thinks of Donald Trump.
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