Cruz had his Heart Set on Rubio as VP, Carly Was Back-Up Plan

After getting defeated by Donald Trump in Indiana in devastating fashion and bowing out of the race, the Cruz Campaign has been playing the blame game.

CNN reports

Top officials of the Cruz campaign are convinced there is one specific step that could have stopped Trump — and they blame Sen. Marco Rubio for not taking that step. In early March, it became clear that Trump was well on his way to the nomination and would even likely defeat Rubio in his home state of Florida’s March 15 primary.

According to several sources close to Cruz, the Cruz campaign conducted several secret polls to see what the impact would be if Rubio joined Cruz as his running mate, with Cruz at the top of the ticket……Through friends and emissaries, the Cruz campaign tried to get Rubio on board.

But Cruz could not reach him on the phone, and others reported back to the Cruz campaign that Rubio did not seem interested in having a discussion about this at all. “He went off the grid,” said a source close to Cruz. Cruz campaign officials speculated that Rubio was interested in preserving his political viability for a contested GOP convention or the 2020 race.

Post mortem’s on POTUS race must include a healthy dose of Kasich. Defeating Trump required a head to head. Kasich kept that from happening.

— Jeff Roe (@jeffroe) May 6, 2016