Presidential races

Cruz supporters boo Trump’s name

by Ben Kamisar

CLEVELAND — Hours before he was scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention, former presidential candidate Ted Cruz drew loud boos from his supporters at the mere mention of the GOP’s nominee, Donald Trump.
 
Cruz, who has not endorsed Trump despite accepting a speaking slot for the convention’s Wednesday night session, chuckled and let the boos continue during a thank-you event for his delegates and supporters in Cleveland.
 
{mosads}While the crowd at the lakeside bar made their feelings clear about Trump, Cruz didn’t offer any signal as to what he would say in his convention speech or whether he would endorse the billionaire businessman. Cruz former campaign manager Jeff Roe refused to answer repeated requests from reporters before the address to supporters on whether Cruz would make an endorsement.  
 
The Texas senator elicited the crowd’s negative reaction toward Trump when he noted that during the primaries, “In an amazing field of 17 talented, amazing candidates, we beat 15 of those candidates. We just didn’t beat 16.” 
 
“Our party now has a nominee,” he continued, as his delegates immediately cut him off with a string of boos. 
 
In a stroke of luck, Trump’s plane, carrying the nominee, flew across the sky just as Cruz mentioned Trump’s name.
 
The boos continued as many in the crowd pointed to the plane emblazoned with the name of their party’s nominee, and Cruz couldn’t help but laugh. 
 
“That was pretty well orchestrated. Jeff, did you email them to fly the plane right when I said that?” Cruz yelled to Roe. 

But a potential run was certainly on the minds of the attendees, who repeatedly broke in to chant “2020,” the year of the next presidential election. 

“I don’t know what the future is going to hold, I don’t know what will happen, but what I do know is my unshakable faith in the men and women here,” he said. 
 
“Every one of us has an obligation to follow our conscience, to speak the truth and truth is unchanging, to defend liberty. There’s a lot of talk about unity — I want to see unity and the way to see unity is to unite around shared principles, to unite around Liberty, and for us to empower the grassroots.”