Ted Cruz pulled out of the presidential race on Tuesday following another loss to GOP frontrunner Donald Trump in the Indiana primary.
“From the beginning I’ve said that I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory,” Cruz told supporters in Indianapolis on Tuesday. “Tonight I’m sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed. Together we left it all on the field in Indiana… and so with heavy heart and boundless optimism for the longterm future of our nation we are suspending our campaign.”
The Texas senator had vowed to go all the way to the Republican convention in July, and even tapped former rival and ousted Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as his running mate last week in a last-ditch effort to revive interest in his campaign.
But a string of crushing defeats in the Northeast and his massive loss in the Hoosier state left him with no real pathway to overtaking Trump for the Republican nomination.
Cruz was considered the GOP’s best hope to stop Trump from running off with the party’s nomination but despite winning a total of nine states he fell short of his goal.
With his commanding win in Indiana, the real estate mogul is poised to secure the delegates he needs to prevent a brokered convention in Cleveland in July and take on likely Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton in the November general election.