Walker predicts Cruz will win Wisconsin — and takes credit

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is predicting Ted Cruz will win his state’s GOP presidential primary next week and already taking the credit.

“I really believe looking at the momentum in this state — and certainly we’ve tried to help create some of that — Ted Cruz wins on Tuesday,” Walker said in a Friday interview with Bloomberg Television’s “With All Due Respect.”

“That’s the momentum shift. I think that starts him down the path toward people seeing, hey, this has really devolved into a two-person race.”

Walker, who ended his own presidential bid in September, endorsed Cruz on Tuesday.

{mosads}Cruz leads GOP front-runner Donald Trump by 10 points in the state, according to a Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday. There are 42 delegates up for grabs in Wisconsin’s April 5 contest, and Cruz trails in the delegate count with 463 to Trump’s 736.

Cruz supporters see the contest as a potential turning point in the race.

Trump’s campaign has been mired in controversies in recent weeks that have included a feud with Cruz over their wives, battery charges against top aide Corey Lewandowski and a firestorm over remarks about punishing women for getting abortions.

Walker has been a consistent critic of Trump, encouraging others to follow him in dropping out of the presidential race in hopes of unifying the party around on alternative candidate.

Walker said Cruz is capable of uniting the Republican party because he’s an “outsider”.

“Well, up until recently, I don’t think there’s a person out there, including all you in the media, who say Ted Cruz isn’t an outsider. I mean, he’s one of the few people I know who didn’t just talk that way in a campaign,” Walker said.

“He got to Washington and actually, oddly enough, did what he said he was going to do.”