Trump narrowly beat out Cruz in the populist 2016 election. Populist voters fed up with the system looked at Jeb! and that pizza guy and everybody else and said Cruz was their 2nd choice.
Honestly I think bearded Cruz wins the 2016 nomination not Trump. Clean-shaven Cruz just doesn't look presidential.
Cruz won Iowa, was only a few percent behind in votes and delegates until two weeks after Super Tuesday, ended up with half of Trump's votes despite 19 states voting after Trump was the foregone winner (Trump dominated all those).
Maybe you don't follow American elections, but that's pretty fucking close. Cruz missed it by a hair (a beard hair).
Point being the base judged him as only slightly short of Trump. Although 5" shorter is a lot in American politics...
Trump got 34.4% of votes on super tuesday, Cruz got 29.2%. That's close.
As many votes for others as for either of them, could break for either.
Before that Trump had some wins because he was a big name and was pimped by operation pied piper, but at the height of the primaries it was basically tied. Bearded Cruz would easily have won it.
Trump narrowly beat out Cruz in the populist 2016 election. Populist voters fed up with the system looked at Jeb! and that pizza guy and everybody else and said Cruz was their 2nd choice.
Honestly I think bearded Cruz wins the 2016 nomination not Trump. Clean-shaven Cruz just doesn't look presidential.
Cruz won Iowa, was only a few percent behind in votes and delegates until two weeks after Super Tuesday, ended up with half of Trump's votes despite 19 states voting after Trump was the foregone winner (Trump dominated all those).
Maybe you don't follow American elections, but that's pretty fucking close. Cruz missed it by a hair (a beard hair).
Point being the base judged him as only slightly short of Trump. Although 5" shorter is a lot in American politics...
Trump got 34.4% of votes on super tuesday, Cruz got 29.2%. That's close.
As many votes for others as for either of them, could break for either.
Before that Trump had some wins because he was a big name and was pimped by operation pied piper, but at the height of the primaries it was basically tied. Bearded Cruz would easily have won it.