The deep enmity toward Ted Cruz within the Senate is coming back to bite him in new and maybe unexpected ways.
As Lauren Fox talked to GOP senators for this piece, one of the dynamics that emerged was that even if senators might be inclined to soften their loathing of Cruz as a way of heading off a disastrous Trump nomination, many of them had already endorsed other candidates earlier in the race who have since dropped out. The prospect of endorsing a second time and having that person lose, too, runs the risk of making individual senators look fairly ridiculous.
So arguably some signs that senators hate the prospect of a Trump nomination more than they hate Cruz, which is good news for Ted. But their resentment of Ted is what denied him their first endorsement, and now they’re not willing to take the political risk of throwing their support publicly to someone who is trailing the frontrunner and needs to thread a contested convention needle to win the nomination.
Not a good spot to be in if you’re Cruz.
