Ted Cruz Drops out of Presidential Race: Here's What This Means

Results for Indiana’s Republican primary have just surfaced and business mogul Donald Trump emerged as the clear winner, leading Ted Cruz by around 18 percentage points. Since, Ted Cruz has just dropped out of the race for president, telling supporters in Indianapolis on Tuesday night, “From the beginning, I have said that I will continue on as long as there is a viable path to victory. Tonight, I am sorry to say, it appears that path has been closed.”

In suspending his campaign, Cruz has surprised a nation not necessarily because we actually believed for a second that he’d end up in the White House, but because of his show of unwavering confidence just a week ago. After all, with half as many delegates as Trump, he literally attempted to reinvigorate his stagnating campaign by naming former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina his running mate. And now… this.

On some level, however, it’s pretty clear Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich understood Trump was likely to become the nominee as early as last week, motivating them to join forces in an attempt to #StopTrump. Ahead of the Indiana primary, Trump needed just 60 percent of remaining delegates to become the nominee. Cruz needed 90 percent and it was “mathematically impossible” for Kasich, so recognizing neither had good chances, they decided to coalesce, if only just to hurt Trump’s.

However, it appears that following his loss on Tuesday, Cruz not only recognizes that his own chances aren’t good, but ultimately that his #StopTrump plan wouldn’t end up all that effective either. And when the man viewed as the Republican party’s last option to avoid nominating Trump is essentially calling it for Trump, well… take from that what you will.

It’s true that Kasich has yet to suspend his campaign, but that doesn’t change the fact that at this stage in the race, it would take a math-defying miracle for him to be the nominee.

At the end of the day, Cruz’s campaign and its affiliated super PACs had enough money to stay in the race, according to a recently released finance report showing the campaign still had around $9 million. On some level, Cruz’s decision to opt out appears to have been more of a pride issue. Time reports that Cruz allies claimed he wouldn’t stay in the race if were “impossible for him to win.” The magazine reports that his top advisers “do not want their friend embarrassed by a campaign that goes on too long.”

That the Texas senator made it to the Republican party’s top three, and became the de-facto candidate for Republican voters seeking to stop Trump, was already surprising enough considering his poor relationships with most Republican officials and peers. Just last week, former Speaker of the House John Boehner identified Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh.”

Cruz himself has not held back this election season, just this morning unloading on Trump with some of his deepest digs yet. He appealed to voters by calling Trump a “pathological liar,” “utterly amoral,” and claiming the front-runner would likely lead America “into the abyss.” However, these pleas for voters wound up futile.

Sure, Cruz isn’t exactly a sympathetic figure, nor one worth celebrating, when you consider his terrible comments and stances on issues like LGBT rights (namely transgender individuals) and abortion, but one thing I’ll frankly miss beyond words is the memes inspired by his campaign. Not sure what I’m referring to? Just yesterday, I’m sure you enjoyed seeing his delightfully bizarre handshake with losing-mate Fiorina light up your social media feeds. And at the end of the day, who isn’t going to miss getting to say one of the presidential candidates of this great nation is the Zodiac killer?