Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s challenge on Thursday was less urgent. Unlike Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, he has already survived a fatal threat on his home turf. Cruz’s immediate goal is to let Trump winnow the field by winning Florida on March 15 and pushing Rubio from the race. That would leave the Texan, who sits second in delegates, in a one-on-one fight with Trump for the nomination. That’s a contest Cruz’s campaign thinks it can win despite the deficit in delegates. “There are only two of us that have a path to winning the nomination, Donald and myself,” Cruz told the crowd, casting the contest as a head-to-head battle.

As a result, Cruz threw only a series of glancing blows at Trump on Thursday. He declined to condemn the spate of violence that has marked Trump’s public rallies. He offered only a mild critique of the protectionist trade policies Trump champions, which defy generations of GOP doctrine. (“He’s right about the problems,” Cruz said, before noting that “his solutions don’t work.”) And he validated the anger driving Trump’s hardline rhetoric against Islam even as he tried to delineate policy differences between them. “People are scared,” Cruz said. “For seven years, we’ve faced terrorist attacks and President Obama lectures Americans on Islamophobia. That is maddening.”

“I think it probably accents where the race is, which is a two-man race between Trump and Cruz with slogans versus solutions,” said Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe.