Cruz’s visit to Bloomington foretold his campaign’s end

Ted talks and Hoosiers don’t listen

This past Monday, I attended the Ted Cruz retail stop at the Wagon Wheel Market in Bloomington.

When I first arrived at 5 PM, there was a small barbecue taking place outside the storefront, and the line was already wrapped around the building. I took my place at the back of the line, and the line continued to grow fairly rapidly behind me.

While waiting, I noticed there was a pretty wide array of people represented in terms of age, gender, and apparent class status. The crowd was, however, mostly white.

I also took note of some of the commentary being made by the people in line around me about Cruz’s politics. There were many who discussed how he was “constitutional” and would be able to “protect American rights” far better than Trump, Kasich, or the Democratic candidates. There were also complaints regarding how, as president, Trump would be all about big government and would work alongside Democratic politicians to develop his policies, and how that would be, in their view, the wrong way to go about enacting change.

Not long after I joined the line, the first protestors began to trickle into the parking lot. It appeared that the majority of the protestors were supporters of Bernie Sanders — multiple people had signs and t-shirts depicting Sanders’ face and the slogan “Bernie for President”.

As more dissenters arrived, the number of anti-Cruz demonstrations increased. One woman wore a shirt with Cruz’s face and the caption “Zodiac Killer” on it; another man held up a cardboard sign with the sentence, “Don’t Insult Lucifer by Comparing Him to Cruz” written across it. There were also a number of people who joined the crowd of protestors attempting to demonstrate their opposition through costumes, rainbow flags, and a large Communist flag.

Just before 6 PM, Cruz arrived at the venue. He and running mate Carly Fiorina entered the market and addressed an audience seated inside while the remainder of the crowd — myself included — gathered in a large cluster outside of the store.

There was some frustration apparent in the crowd, as many of the people left outside had obtained tickets to the event, and there had been no differentiation made between ticket holders and people who simply showed up to the event in terms of who was permitted into the building first to hear Cruz speak. While we waited, political commentator Glenn Beck made a surprise appearance and spent time chatting and taking pictures with members of the crowd.

Around 6:30, Cruz and Fiorina made their way outside to meet the crowd. They spent five or ten minutes shaking hands and taking pictures with attendees before returning to their car and leaving for their next Indiana destination.

Though I was, frankly, stunned by the number of attendees at this event, the attendance was still minuscule compared to that of rallies held by Trump, Clinton, or Sanders. This, along with the general lack of enthusiasm in the crowd, was perhaps predicative of the results of today’s primary.

To the surprise of many, Ted Cruz has now dropped out of the presidential election after his loss in the Indiana state primary to Donald Trump. Though yesterday’s efforts were Cruz’s final attempts to convince Indiana’s Republican voters to rally behind him instead of Trump, it now seems clear those efforts were somewhat futile. Hoosier voters had already made up their minds.

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