Top GOP donors are putting some distance between themselves and Sen. Ted Cruz following his RNC speech in which he pointedly did not endorse the party’s nominee.
According to a report in National Review, Cruz’s refusal to back Donald Trump in Cleveland may have had some unintended blowback for the senator’s 2020 presidential prospects, which he has made no secret of. “Forget about 2020,” a top donor told NR. “It’s a pipe dream now.”
Eliana Johnson and Tim Allen report:
The senator’s top donors were crucial during the primary’s opening phase in amassing the funds — both for the campaign and the super PAC — needed to convince skeptics of his viability as a serious presidential candidate. But some of his high-profile benefactors, hell-bent on keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House, are now livid at what they perceive as a betrayal of the pledge he made last year to support the Republican nominee.
“I was utterly shocked. He gave a world-class speech, and had he stopped seven-eighths of the way through, nobody would doubt he’d be the nominee in 2020 or 2024,” says one person who was among Cruz’s biggest donors and bundlers. “Instead he goes and says, ‘Vote your conscience,’ which everyone knows meant, ‘F Trump.’”
Following his Jul. 20 address, Cruz told his critics that he would not be a “servile puppy dog” and endorse the man who insulted his wife’s appearance and tarred his father with tabloid smears.
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Sam Reisman (@thericeman) is a staff editor at Mediaite.
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