Reactionary right wing Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has ended his presidential campaign following his loss in the Indiana Republican primary to fiery real estate mogul Donald Trump, who will now almost certainly be the Republican nominee.
“What you have done, the movement you have started is extraordinary,” Cruz told somber supporters towards the end of a long concession speech.
“I love each and every one of you. From the beginning I have said i would continue on as long as there was a path to victory. Tonight, I’m sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed. Together, we left it all on the field in Indiana. We gave it everything we’ve got. The voters chose another path.”
“With a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign,” Cruz said.
Responding to Cruz’s announcement, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus acknowledged that Trump was now the “presumptive nominee.”
Cruz’s decision to end his campaign means he will not be showing up in Washington State for the events that he had planned for next week, including a fundraisier at a private home on the Eastside co-hosted by Dino Rossi.
The only other credible candidate left standing is Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has a minuscule number of delegates and is running on fumes.
Cruz’s decision to withdraw from the race is a severe blow to Susan Hutchison and the Washington State Republican Party, for it means the forthcoming Washington Republican primary is unlikely to be competitive. Ballots for that election are just about to go into the mail. The deadline to return them will be Tuesday, May 24th.
It’s possible the anti-Trump factions of the party will now rally around Kasich. But that is unlikely to make Kasich competitive. Cruz had much built a deeper base of support, aided by figures like Glenn Beck and, more recently, former rival Carly Fiorina. If anyone was to come from behind and overtake Trump, it was going to be Cruz, who had outlasted a bevy of rivals, from Jeb Bush and Chris Christie to Ben Carson and Marco Rubio, who ended their campaigns back in the winter.
Only a few hours ago, The Seattle Times published a story by political reporter Jim Brunner announcing that Cruz planned a major tour of Washington State and hyping the forthcoming Republican primary. The lede to that story was as follows:
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz plans a campaign swing across Washington state this week, scheduling rallies Wednesday in Spokane and Thursday in Bothell and Vancouver.
The Texas senator trails front-runner Donald Trump in the race for the GOP presidential nomination — and may face even longer odds if Trump wins a key Indiana primary Tuesday.
But Cruz has a strong organization in Washington and is looking for a win here in the May 24 primary, with 44 delegates at stake. Primary ballots go out this week.
The story went on to summarize Cruz’s planned Washington events:
On Thursday morning, Cruz plans a rally at Cedar Park Christian School in Bothell , 16300 112th Ave N.E., according to campaign sources. Tickets for the free event were being advertised on Eventbrite, an online ticketing service. He’ll hold a rally later that day in Vancouver, Wash.
Cruz’s Washington trip will start with a rally 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Spokane Convention Center, his campaign announced in a news release.
Later that night, Cruz is scheduled to attend a private fundraiser at a home in Redmond. Tickets for that event cost $1,000 a person, or $2,700 to get into a VIP reception with the candidate.
Now that Cruz is out, all those events have been canceled.
Once Cruz had announced his decision to end his campaign, the article above was swiftly replaced by the Times with a new story at the same URL featuring reaction from Cruz’s Washington State campaign chairman (who professed himself shocked) and Tim Eyman ally Doug Ericksen, an enthusiastic Donald Trump booster. The original story is gone from the Times’ website, as if it never existed.
Earlier in the nominating season, pundits speculated that Washington might be the kind of state that could give John Kasich a boost, if he could survive that long.
But our guess is that when the results are posted on May 24th, Donald Trump will have won Washington’s Republican primary in a rout, vanquishing his rivals in much the same way that he has in other states across the country.
That’s certainly what the Washington State Democratic Party expects.
“The Republican party is now officially the party of Trump,” said Jaxon Ravens, State Democratic Party Chair. “Republicans chose as their standard bearer a reality television show host who regularly makes hateful and dangerous remarks about women, Hispanics, and Muslims. Donald Trump may be a good reflection of the Republican party’s values, but his views are deeply inconsistent with Washington state’s values of compassion, empathy, diversity, and inclusion.”
“There’s no doubt that Trump’s presence on the top of the ticket will poison the already weak Republican brand in Washington state,” he concluded.
One Comment
Trump is much worst than any previous Republican candidate both successful and unsuccessful and indeed could draw a comparison to a Democratic president. Andrew Jackson!