Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign appears to be walking back predictions that it will win the state’s upcoming primary.
On Saturday, Cruz campaign communications director Rick Tyler said he thought the Texas senator needed to win the Lone Star State, but by Monday he would not say he thought Cruz would win.
“I think we have to win Texas, absolutely, yeah sure,” Tyler said when asked by CNN if Texas was a “must-win”. “We’re doing well here now, I’m confident we’ll do well.”
But by Monday, Tyler struck a much different tone. Tyler laughed off Fox News’ question about whether Cruz would win the Lone Star State.
“I’m not gonna, no, I’m not gonna predict, in this race, Martha, I’m not going to predict anything,” Tyler said. “But we hope to do well there absolutely.”
Tyler is not the only surrogate to bet big on Texas — on Sunday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick predicted a Cruz victory at home — but Tyler’s less confident stance comes after he had to apologize for spreading a story containing misleading information about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. And criticism of Tyler’s performance has begun to mount from Cruz allies who feel the campaign’s communications strategy needs a “reboot.”
Cruz ranks second in the Washington Examiner‘s newest GOP presidential power rankings. Nevada Republicans will caucus on Tuesday.
