Houston Chronicle Sunday

In Indiana, Cruz hopes for ‘Hoosiers’-type ending

- By Kevin Diaz

INDIANAPOL­IS — There’s no better place to play underdog than Indiana, where Ted Cruz could be making his last stand.

The embattled Texas senator knew it when he selected the storied “Hoosiers” gym in Knightstow­n to weather a storm of primary defeats to Donald Trump, the GOP’s self-declared “presumptiv­e nominee.”

Re-enacting a scene from the classic 1980s film of small-town basketball glory, Cruz, a movie buff, had an aide measure the gym’s 10-foot basketball rim for all to see.

“The amazing thing is that basketball ring in Indiana, it’s the same height as it is in New York City and every other place in this country,” Cruz told a roaring crowd. “There is nothing Hoosiers cannot do.”

Since then, Cruz has withstood a silent chorus of indifferen­ce or public disdain from some Republican Party elites, notably former House Speaker John Boehner, who called him “Lucifer in the flesh.”

Even the late endorsemen­t Friday by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a conservati­ve Republican, had a lukewarm feel. Though he would be voting for Cruz, Pence said, he appreciate­d Trump and would “urge every Hoosier to make up their own mind.”

Facing a potential do-or-die primary in Indiana on Tuesday, Cruz is banking on those Hoosiers to help end Trump’s run for the nomination.

After five sweeping victories in the Northeast last week, Trump is

about 245 delegates short of the 1,237 majority needed to clinch the nomination. The Hoosier State’s 57 mostly winner-take-all delegates could get the business magnate a big part of the way there.

Playing defense, Cruz is counting on Indiana’s Midwestern conservati­ve instincts — and his first real open shot at the frontrunne­r. In an unusual bargain, Ohio Gov. John Kasich seemed to step aside in Indiana, a calculated gambit to consolidat­e the antiTrump vote.

That deal, always shaky, seemed to unravel completely on Thursday when Cruz told reporters in Indiana that “there is no alliance.” Kasich strategist John Weaver responded minutes later with a tweet: “I can’t stand liars.”

Pressed on Friday about the deal, Cruz blamed it on misreporti­ng by the media.

“There was never a ‘grand alliance,’ ” he said. “It was simply a decision on where to focus time and resources.” ‘At the edge of a cliff’

Whether moderate Kasich supporters in Indiana will gravitate to Cruz remains to be seen, especially as the Texan plays to the state’s socially conservati­ve roots.

“The Indiana race is going to be decided by the common-sense good judgment, the Midwestern common sense, of Hoosiers,” Cruz said Friday in Indianapol­is. Then, adding a sense of urgency: “The country is depending on Hoosiers right now. … As a party and as a nation, we are at the edge of a cliff.”

Indiana also was the backdrop for Cruz’s last politicall­y fraught tactical step: a Hail Mary announceme­nt two days earlier that he would run with ex-rival Carly Fiorina, the former HewlettPac­kard CEO remembered for standing up to a Trump insult about her looks.

Fiorina was introduced inside a cavernous pavilion in downtown Indianapol­is. On a chilly, rainy day, only a few hundred people showed up — a minuscule turnout by Trump standards.

A press riser for television cameras was set up halfway across the room, helping to hide the empty expanse behind it. As television interviews were conducted afterward, campaign aides urged supporters to push tightly into the background to create crowd scenes.

Trump pounced immediatel­y. “Cruz can’t win,” he said. “What’s he doing picking vice presidents? … He is the first presidenti­al candidate in the history of this country who’s mathematic­ally eliminated from being president who chose a vice presidenti­al candidate.”

Cruz backers in the pavilion were thrilled, even if some recognized the gamble. A premature vice-presidenti­al roll-of-the-dice could not only look presumptuo­us but also could foreclose on Cruz’s options later. With the possibilit­y of a contested convention in July, when Cruz likely would face a substantia­l Trump delegate lead, his VP slot no lon- ger will be in play.

To get to that point, however, he needs Indiana.

“Maybe it’s out of desperatio­n,” said Kate Swanson, a Republican activist in Zionsville, outside of Indianapol­is. “But it’s time to take desperate measures. So, why not?”

Fiorina would seem to do little to broaden Cruz’s national base of support in 2016, though she reinforces Cruz’s conservati­ve bona fides in Indiana, where she has become his constant companion.

Cruz’s underdog imagery has not been confined to the gym where part of the iconic “Hoosiers” was filmed. The night before, Cruz rallied at the Johnson County Fairground­s in Franklin, near the old Nineveh Elementary School, which served as another bucolic backdrop for the movie. ‘Perfect’ for Indiana?

One of the school’s alumni is Brad Moan, a mechanical engineer, local tea party activist and longtime Cruz supporter. To Moan, Cruz’s quest to upset Trump — who enjoys a narrow lead in the polls — is the quintessen­tial Hoosier story.

“He’s the perfect candidate for Indiana,” Moan said. “When you tell people you’re from Indiana, they’re like, ‘Indiana? What do you do there?’ I love the state. I love the flatness. But there’s a bit of a feeling that Indiana is just Indiana. We grow corn. We’re the nation’s leading supplier of popcorn. So, you kind of feel kind of like an underdog, and you root for that to come through.”

Part of Cruz’s underdog narrative relies on recasting Trump — a political novice compared to Cruz — as the ultimate insider. Cruz’s attacks now focus almost entirely on trying to unmask the businessma­n as a “big-government liberal” who used to give money to Democrats. A constant Cruz refrain is Trump’s support for Planned Parenthood, the women’s health network that has become anathema to conservati­ves. He often refers to Trump as a consummate “Washington insider” who plays the game of money and influence better than anybody.

Trump, in turn, depicts Cruz as the “establishm­ent” candidate, noting his support by a network of pro-Cruz and anti-Trump super PACs, some of them advised or led by former aides to Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush.

One pro-Cruz PAC, the Trusted Leadership PAC, went on the air in Indiana on Thursday with a new national security-based ad in support of the Cruz-Fiorina ticket. Releasing the ad, “A Serious Leader,” the group announced it has spent nearly $2 million to help Cruz in Indiana.

While the Republican Party is split, Cruz has sought to make the most of attacks by figures like Boehner, who said he had “never worked with a more miserable son of a b---- in my life.”

“If you want to see more leaders in the Republican Party like John Boehner,” Cruz said in Indianapol­is, “then Donald Trump is your guy.”

Indiana also is critical to Trump. He needs to win most of the state’s 57 delegates to finish off Cruz and take the pressure off in California and eight other upcoming primaries.

In Indiana, 27 delegates are allotted by congressio­nal district, and the rest go to the statewide winner.

In a battle of outsiders, Cruz partisans see their candidate as the true insurgent.

“Everybody says he’s establishm­ent, but he’s not,” said Jackie Rhoton, an unemployed tea party activist in Lebanon, a town northeast of Indianapol­is that’s part of a toss-up congressio­nal district. “Otherwise, he’d be more liked by the establishm­ent and in the Senate. You can’t have it both ways.” Sensing the urgency

Nobody’s idea of an underdog, Trump has been campaignin­g in the basketball-crazy state with legendary coach Bobby Knight, better known for throwing chairs and leading Indiana University to three national championsh­ips.

As Trump campaigns with a growing sense of inevitabil­ity, Cruz forces in Indiana cling to the hope that a full-court press of unheralded players can change the game just before the final buzzer.

One of them is Warren Whitesell, a project manager at DePauw University whose family of five home-schooled children has been out knocking on doors for Cruz near their home in Putnam County.

“We sense the urgency,” he said. “Most of the families we’re closest to are concerned that if this doesn’t turn out well, our nation has limited hope.”

 ?? Michael Conroy / Associated Press ?? Ted Cruz, speaking during a rally last week at the “Hoosiers” gym in Knightstow­n, Ind., needs to win the Republican primary in the state to have a realistic shot of stopping front-runner Donald Trump from reaching the 1,237-delegate majority to clinch the GOP nomination.
Michael Conroy / Associated Press Ted Cruz, speaking during a rally last week at the “Hoosiers” gym in Knightstow­n, Ind., needs to win the Republican primary in the state to have a realistic shot of stopping front-runner Donald Trump from reaching the 1,237-delegate majority to clinch the GOP nomination.
 ?? JIm Wilson / New York Times ?? Supporters of Ted Cruz turn out Saturday for a private reception for the Texas senator during the California Republican Convention in Burlingame.
JIm Wilson / New York Times Supporters of Ted Cruz turn out Saturday for a private reception for the Texas senator during the California Republican Convention in Burlingame.

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