Marco Rubio won the day before Nevada’s caucuses—and Ted Cruz lost.

While Rubio was racking up big endorsements, he also managed to exact a pound of political flesh from his closest rival when Cruz’s campaign was thrown into turmoil over new allegations of “dirty tricks.”

“When you stand in front of a sign at every rally that says ‘TrustTED’ with ‘Ted’ being the key part of the brand, you have to protect that brand at all costs—and they’ve lost that brand,” said Bruce Haynes, a GOP strategist. “Cruz cannot afford three days of the news cycle with everyone scrutinizing everything they’ve done that might be unseemly, so they had one choice to try and stop the bleeding, especially with Rubio on a bit of a rocket ride right now.”