Cruz claims ‘impressive’ N.H. showing

“The votes are still being counted, the exact results are unknown, but right now it appears we are effectively tied for third in the state of New Hampshire. That was the result that all of us were told was impossible,” Cruz said.

Jason Johnson, Cruz’s chief strategist, told the Washington Examiner that he considered Cruz’s third place finish a victory for the campaign. Johnson said the Granite State provided Florida Sen. Marco Rubio the opportunity to defeat Donald Trump and the senator failed to do so.

“You look at how much time each candidate has spent in the state and how much each candidate has, time spent and money spent, no one performed better than Cruz tonight.” Johnson said. “I can tell you internally from looking at the numbers, second wasn’t in the cards. Our goal was simple and that was to be in the top tier in a state that has been traditionally very friendly to the establishment.” Jack Kimball, a former New Hampshire GOP chairman who endorsed Cruz, said he hoped the northern part of the state would help lift Cruz into the runner-up spot.

“We’re hopeful we can bump up to second place, but even if we don’t, a third-place finish coming out of here is a good one for us and I think that’ll give us good momentum going into South Carolina,” Kimball said. ” We were cautiously optimistic about a victory but everything told us, even this morning, that wasn’t going to happen.”

Kimball also downplayed the meaning of John Kasich’s second-place finish, noting that the Ohio governor did not have the ground game in South Carolina to build momentum.

The Texas senator congratulated Donald Trump on his victory while talking up his own showing.

“I want to congratulate Donald Trump on an impressive win tonight and John Kasich had a good night tonight, but the real winner — the real winner — is the conservative grassroots who propelled us to an outright victory in Iowa and to a far stronger result and outcome in New Hampshire than anyone predicted,” Cruz said.

Cruz spent the last days of his Granite State campaign courting libertarian supporters, and that voting bloc was crucial to his finish in the Granite State.

Leah Wolczko, a libertarian from Goffstown, wanted to vote for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, but switched her allegiance to Cruz after Paul quit. Wolczko described the primary as New Hampshire’s Mardi Gras and was not eager to see it end.

“I’m rudderless and homeless and left to figure it out, so I didn’t know what I was going to do until the minute I was in the booth almost,” Wolczko said. “I did a very strategic vote myself. I feel that if Cruz could leave New Hampshire, I would be ecstatic if he took second place because he would believe and transport the message that the libertarians helped make that happen and he would carry those pieces of our message where we overlap with him.”

Wolczko, who sported a Ron Paul 2012 cap, said she was most fearful of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio winning the GOP nomination.

Other voters chose Cruz because they believed him to be the most conservative option available.

“I voted for Ted Cruz, and — I’m not glad to get it over with. It’s exciting,” said Suzanne Potoma. “He, I think, is the most consistently conservative candidate.”

But the conservative label may not carry the same mileage for Cruz in New Hampshire as it did in Iowa.

Jimmy King, a former New York City fireman living in New Hampshire, told the Washington Examiner he would vote for Donald Trump. He added that he believed nominal conservatism had been rendered inconsequential by Trump’s candidacy.

“I lean towards a conservative, but this last go around I think conservative has lost its meaning,” King said. “It’s a label now that’s just a nonexistent label and everyone’s too far to the left, everyone’s too far to the right … I think Trump crosses party lines too — he’s got name recognition.”

Cruz will rely upon conservative voters to carry him to the GOP nomination as the race heads to South Carolina.