Ted Cruz threw everything at Indiana, and none of it stuck.
After finally getting the two-man contest against Donald Trump that he had promised would deliver victory, Cruz was routed, a staggering defeat for the senator’s dimming presidential ambitions.
Cruz is now 0 for the last 7 contests and stumbles into the final month of the primary calendar with no momentum, a new low in favorability and a growing aura of inevitability around his chief rival.
A remarkable 91 percent of Republicans, according to a CNN poll released Monday, said they now expected Trump would become the Republican nominee.
“He wanted a one-on-one with Donald Trump the entire election and he got it and he lost,” said Keith Nahigian, a Republican strategist who managed Michele Bachmann’s 2012 campaign. “If you’re the true conservative alternative to Trump, they’re not buying it, so quit selling it and close the store.”