Ted Cruz's political director: “Our strategy is taking it to the convention"

“Our strategy is taking it to the convention, which is why you’ve seen us announcing chairmen in California and New Jersey, as well as Iowa and New Hampshire,” said Mark Campbell, Cruz’s political director. “There are 2,470 [delegates] total, and you need 1,236 of them to win. None of these can be accumulated at any one time, which is why it’s a marathon more than a sprint. So we are methodically going state by state, focusing on grass roots and party activists.”

Campbell said they expect Cruz to place “in the top three” in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, and Cruz is spending time there as well — but he made clear that the real strategizing is, already, built around delegate counts.

“We expect to do well in all of the early primary states, which will give us sufficient momentum to do extremely well in the March 1 primaries … and caucuses,” he said. “Obviously Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada are important, but then there are many large states that will be distributing their delegates starting March 1.”

Betting big on later contests has little track record of success.