Ted Cruz Would Have Reportedly Pulled Out Of The Presidential Race If He Had Lost Texas

It’s fair to say that Super Tuesday didn’t exactly provide the most super of news for Ted Cruz’s presidential bid, with the senator only picking up a total of three states out of the eleven different states that took to the polls. Ted Cruz was always predicted to win his home state of Texas, but now details have now arisen that, if he hadn’t, it could have signaled the end for his presidential bid. It was undeniably one incredibly close shave for the Cruz campaign, which is already struggling to tackle Donald Trump’s mounting popularity.

The comments came from Ted Cruz’s chief strategist when talking to reporters on Wednesday. According to that strategist, Ted is believed to have felt more than comfortable bowing out of the race if he was unable to pick up Texas. However, Cruz’s win was the slimmest home state victory in Republican primary history, which is exactly something for the Cruz camp to be celebrating right now. Cruz’s departure from the race is clearly one that has been on the table for a good while.

Listen, everyone recognizes Donald Trump is a unique phenomenon. And we were encouraged by internal numbers, but you know, I asked the team what do we do if we lose Texas?

In fact, it goes without saying that Ted Cruz would have largely felt forced out of the race if he hadn’t managed to secure a victory in Texas, especially when you take into consideration how vocal the senator has been about planning to win big in his own state. Furthermore, Cruz was consistently confident throughout the early stages of the campaign that a lot of his key support would come from the southern states. However, only managing to pick up Texas and Oklahoma in the south, Ted Cruz clearly still has some serious questions to answer.

Ted Cruz’s comments come as he gets ever more vocal about the fact he expects Marco Rubio to pull out of the race if he’s unable to win his home state of Florida. Cruz’s plan is of course that many of Rubio’s voters would fall behind him as the anti-Trump candidate.

That being said, Ted Cruz was clearly incredibly concerned before the primary that he might just lose Texas, with chief strategist Jason Johnson revealing that he had worked with Cruz to make plans around how he would pull out of the race. Evidently, the plan was for Cruz to quietly step aside in respect for the voters, before dealing one final blow to Donald Trump’s campaign, with a prayer that America will make the right decision in the end.

However, when you take into consideration exactly how far Ted Cruz still has to go if he wants to stand any chance of beating Donald Trump to the Republican nomination, that aforementioned speech might be one we’ll see the senator making in the near future. In fact, we might just see Marco Rubio making a similar speech even sooner if Ted Cruz’s plan falls into place and Rubio loses his home state of Florida, pulling out of the race.

.@tedcruz pins his hopes on two-man race https://t.co/occvQ5xR5E | Getty pic.twitter.com/fvRzK2vdSS

— POLITICO (@politico) March 2, 2016

If there’s one thing for certain though, it’s that Donald Trump will paint Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as background noise to his campaign now. Even if one candidate falls, The Donald will want to be clear of the fact that he’s prepared to take on either Cruz or Rubio and their backing of the Republican establishment.

The action on the Republican side of the race is undeniably painting the Democratic race as a boring sideshow and that’s something the winning Republican candidate will want to capitalise on when the two key competitors are revealed this summer.

[Photo by Stewart F. House/Getty Images]