CLEVELAND —Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign manager said he believes the Texas senator has not ruled out ultimately endorsing and voting for Donald Trump.
While Cruz’s speech at the GOP convention drew loud boos and criticism for its lack of an explicit endorsement, Jeff Roe made clear that Cruz’s comments do not preclude him from endorsing in the future.
“He hasn’t made the final decision if he’s going to support [Trump] or not,” Roe told reporters. “He has said, with great clarity, and I would like to expand upon it today, we would love and would pray that we get to a position where we could support Donald Trump. That’s good for everybody.”
Roe’s remarks came in a gaggle with reporters on the heels of Cruz’s address to the Texas Republican delegation on Thursday morning. The Texans, including Trump and Cruz delegates, needled Cruz about his decision not to make any endorsement.
Cruz’s campaign manager said the two teams talked every few days, and the topic of an endorsement arose late Wednesday night before Cruz took the stage at the GOP convention. Roe said Jason Miller, Trump’s senior communications adviser and a former Cruz aide, called him hours ahead of Cruz’s speech and said Trump would “appreciate” and “remember” an endorsement from Cruz. Roe said he responded simply, “I hear ya.”
“I understand where they want to go, they understood where we were starting from, and yeah I think they were less than pleased we weren’t going to go with the full endorsement,” Roe said.
Roe also cast Cruz’s remarks as delivering a more favorable view of the GOP nominee than onlookers inside the arena perceived.
“The political positioning of the guy that gets second place not endorsing the guy that got first place is rampant through history, and last night he went further than Ronald Reagan went on Gerald Ford,” Roe said. “Ronald Reagan did not endorse Gerald Ford. He [Cruz] went further in his language than Tom Cotton went two nights prior.”
Regarding the chaos in the arena during Cruz’s speech, Roe said he did not know whether Trump’s team urged delegates to boo Cruz. But Roe flashed a smile and said if Cruz’s team was running the convention, viewers may have witnessed a similar scene.
Roe insisted he did not see any political advantage to Cruz withholding an endorsement from Trump, and added that the Trump campaign may stop caring about earning Cruz’s support after the GOP convention ends.
“I think there’s probably a shelf life on them giving a crap what we do,” Roe said. “That might terminate tomorrow night at midnight.”
