But Trump’s dominant position in the Republican primary after six straight blowout victories – from New York to this week’s sweep of Mid-Atlantic states – appears to have reordered the battle to secure delegates who would be loyal should the front-runner fail to clinch the nomination outright. So while Cruz’s mastery of the delegate selection process has given Trump’s team fits in the past, the response this time is a yawn.

“It takes a lot of the pressure off,” said Stewart, Trump’s Virginia director. “After [Tuesday] night, the campaign is convinced that we’re going to hit 1,237, so this will be a moot issue. There will be no second ballot.”

If Cruz makes inroads in the Virginia delegation, it’ll be the latest example of a pro-Trump state sending a Cruz-friendly delegation to Cleveland. Trump earned about 35 percent of the vote in the state’s March 1 primary, edging Marco Rubio’s 32 percent and more than doubling Cruz’s 17 percent. The result earned Trump 17 bound delegates on the first ballot at the convention to Cruz’s eight.

But Cruz has landed his allies in delegate slots bound to vote for Trump but likely to be free to vote their conscience on a second or third ballot – in South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and Iowa and he’s poised to do the same in Virginia.