Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, fresh off a third-place finish in the New Hampshire GOP presidential primary, said Wednesday the first two nominating contests in the 2016 race showed that he’s the only candidate who can take down Donald Trump.
“This is a national campaign, and one of the most important conclusions coming out of these first two states is that the only candidate who can beat Donald Trump is me,” Mr. Cruz told reporters before an event in South Carolina.
Mr. Cruz finished first in Iowa, and came in third behind Mr. Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich in New Hampshire.
“The other candidates are unable to do so, so if you don’t believe Donald is the right person to be the Republican nominee, if you don’t believe he’s the right person to go head-to-head with Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, if you don’t think he’s the right person to be commander-in-chief, what we’re seeing is conservatives uniting behind our campaign,” Mr. Cruz said.
“I think Iowa and New Hampshire together played a critical role in that, and then South Carolina is going to play an even more critical role,” he said.
Mr. Cruz said that “you cannot beat Donald Trump running from the left.”
“When you see more establishment candidates standing on the debate stage saying, ’gosh, Donald, we need more amnesty,’ ’gosh, Donald, don’t be so tough on radical Islamic terrorists’ — that will not beat Donald Trump,” he said.
“The only way to beat Donald Trump is to highlight the simple truth of his record — it is not conservative,” Mr. Cruz said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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