The most telling election day of the year, otherwise known as Super Tuesday, will have Donald Trump and Ted Cruz biting at their nails as the results roll in. After Tuesday, Trump will have either solidified his nationwide lead or, at worst, handed it over to Cruz, who's leading by a small margin in a few states. In February at the beginning of the election season, the Texas Senator gained solid footing in the Iowa caucus, where he beat Trump by just 3.3 points. After dropping to third place in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, the future isn't looking as bright for him. Throughout his evangelically-focused campaign, he's preached his political ideology as if it were a religion. He's even requested that church members in Iowa pray for a Cruz win, according to the Washington Post.
If my people would you call by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear their prayers and forgive their sins and I will heal their land.
The national polls suggest people aren't that gullible. Though his religiosity may have saved him in Iowa, these elections may prove that his campaign has gone too far when it comes to blurring the line between church and state. In Texas, he's turning to a similar strategy: martyrdom. At a speech in Houston on the Wednesday before Super Tuesday, Cruz recited pieces from the history of the Alamo and likened Texas' historic battle to his own.
I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country. Victory or death.
As the New Republic's Steven Cohen concludes, Cruz isn't going to go down without a fight and Texas is the most important battleground. Perhaps the most concerning harbinger of potential Super Tuesday loss is the state's wavering support of its own Senator. With 155 delegates, Texas is the prize state in this election and candidates are going to be ruthless in their attempts to win it over. According to RealClearPolitics, Cruz has 37 percent support in the state, compared to Trump's 28 percent. In order to come out on top though, he's going to have to win the state by a landslide if he expects to dominate the southern region of the U.S. Republican strategist Ted Delisi told The New York Times that the stakes are going to become much higher.
Cruz has to win Texas. The bromides of needing to ‘do well’ in states, those come to a screeching halt when it comes to your own state.
In Texas, as well as in every other state, Trump is everyone's biggest opponent. According to Politico's Kyle Cheney, Trump may suffer losses to Cruz or Rubio, but he can't be trampled. With 82 delegates compared to Cruz's 17, he's insulated himself from complete defeat. Though he won't be dropping out the race any time soon, recent remarks concerning the KKK might hurt Trump in this upcoming election. In a Tennessee rally on Monday, Marco Rubio insulted him for failing to denounce an endorsement from KKK leader David Duke during an interview with Jake Tapper. Rubio isn't the only one from the Republican party who's refusing to let Trump get away with these recent antics either. Mitt Romney has been questioning the candidate's electability via Twitter.
This recent gaffe — one of the few that are actually catching up with Trump — might give Cruz a narrow window of time to steal some votes. But realistically, Trump isn't the only candidate Cruz needs to worry about. The Texas Senator will also have to battle Florida Senator Marco Rubio for the loyalty of the southern states. According to RealClearPolitics' averages, the Florida Senator is polling ahead of Cruz in Massachusetts, Virginia, Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Vermont, and Minnesota. Up against two huge rivals, Cruz will have to prove firstly that he can win over his own state of Texas. But, if one thing's certain, it's that he's not going to give up easily.
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