Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s big primary losses this week in northeastern states shows that he’s “paying a price” for the way he’s campaigning, according to the Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board.
“The results showed the continuing limits of Mr. Cruz’s appeal among suburban, non-religious voters, which wouldn’t bode well for the general election against Hillary Clinton,” said the Journal. The paper noted that Cruz recently won big in Wisconsin, “an opportunity to broaden his appeal” but said he “is paying a price for his strategy of polarization and claiming to be the only true conservative in the race. As a political outsider, he’s being Trumped.”
On Tuesday, the two remaining Republican candidates, Cruz and John Kasich, were trounced by Trump in five Northeastern states. The billionaire developer came away with more than 50 percent of the vote in each state and swept the corresponding delegates, bringing him closer to winning the nomination.
Cruz is currently betting on the next big primary state, Indiana, to regain some momentum, though Trump is polling ahead there.
The Texas senator memorably targeted Trump in a negative way for having “New York values,” a line that is widely considered to have backfired as the campaign headed into less conservative states.
