Continuing a streak of success in the Midwestern caucuses, Ted Cruz won the Kansas caucus on Saturday.
Cruz delivered a celebratory speech from Idaho soon after several news outlets called Kansas for Cruz and showed the Texas senator leading in early returns from Maine’s caucus as well.
“God bless Kansas and God bless Maine!” Cruz said. “The scream you hear, the howl that comes from Washington, D.C., is utter terror at what we the people are doing together. … And what we’re seeing is conservatives coming together, what we’re seeing is Republicans coming together, what we’re seeing is libertarians coming together, what we’re seeing is men and women who love freedom and who love the Constitution coming and uniting and standing as one behind this campaign.”
Cruz’s victory speech appeared largely similar to his past speeches delivered after primary and caucus wins, but he appeared to include more anti-Donald Trump rhetoric. The senator took a shot at Trump’s record without explicitly naming him and said people are tired of “Washington dealmakers” who are “talking a good game on immigration their checkbook talks a very different game.”
Cruz’s win dealt a blow to both Trump and Rubio who each wanted a strong showing in Kansas. Cruz headed straight for Kansas after Super Tuesday and returned to the state again on Saturday morning to motivate caucus-goers.
Trump ditched a previously scheduled visit to a mega-conference of conservatives near Washington, D.C., choosing instead to campaign in Kansas ahead of the caucus and the move appears not to have paid off.
Rubio, meanwhile, also suffered a setback, after having racked up support from elected Republicans statewide including Sen. Pat Roberts, Gov. Sam Brownback, and Congressman Mike Pompeo. Rubio stumped across Kansas on Friday with hopes of an upset victory, but his chances of winning appeared slim.
While polling of the Sunflower State has been scarce, Trump held a six-percentage point lead on Ted Cruz in a poll of 1,060 likely voters conducted by Trafalgar Group from March 2-3 with a margin-of-error of 2.96 percentage points. Cruz overcame the margin in the final days and earned some much-needed momentum as the race heads toward the winner-take-all states of March 15.
