Unless the Indiana Republican polls are drastically incorrect, today may be the final defeat for Ted Cruz; his “swan song.” As the polls opened, Donald Trump had a 10-point lead in the “Hoosier State.” Although it may not seem a large lead to some, if you are aware of the state’s demographics, it may loom large for the future of not only the GOP nomination, but for the Republican Party.

As demonstrated by Cruz’ primary victories, his supporters are centered around evangelicals. Indiana has a large evangelical population. If Cruz cannot win the votes of his only demographic, he cannot win anywhere.

With 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination, Trump has accumulated 996; Cruz 565. Pollsters expect Trump to win at least 54 of Indiana’s 57 delegates, which will give Trump 1050, and Cruz 568. It is possible that Cruz could be swept by Trump; we only need to look at New York and Pennsylvania where Cruz received only a single candidate.

In desperation, Cruz named Carly Fiorina his running mate; she is not helping him, and she will not in the future. Working class Americans will not forget that as the CEO of Hewlett Packard, she forced the layoff of 30,000 employees and continued policies which cost the tech giant millions of dollars.

If the polls are correct, Trump will win decisively, and make it difficult for the establishment to deny him the nomination.

Michael Malone is a 48-year-old truck driver who cast his vote for Trump.

“In the last 10 days, he became clearer on his foreign policy, and it became more evident that Cruz would say anything to get a vote,” said Malone, adding he had backed Trump from the start of his candidacy. “Cruz’s dishonesty has been proven again and again. Once Trump is president, and people see him in action, they’ll say: ‘Okay, we got the good deal.’”

This is an example of what most Trump supporters claimed as their reasons for supporting the real estate mogul.

Trump has frequently urged Cruz and John Kasich to end their campaigns.

“If we win Indiana, it’s over,” Trump declared at a boisterous Monday afternoon rally in Carmel. “They’re finished. They’re gone.”

He may be correct. With a decisive win, he insures the possibility of reaching the magic number of 1,237 before the convention in July. Cruz has been mathematically eliminated from reaching that number. His goal is to prevent Trump from his goal, and force a contested convention.

Republican insiders are indicating that if Trump has a large lead entering the convention, he will likely receive the party’s nomination without securing the needed 1,273 delegates.

Cruz must follow two previous TEA Party darlings who withdrew when they eventually admitted that a victory was impossible. Rand Paul suffered from a lack of campaign contributions, and Marco Rubio withdrew when he was defeated in his home state of Florida by 20 points.

Mr. Cruz; the fat lady is warming up. It’s time for you to return to your ‘day’ job and continue your efforts to destroy our government.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

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Photo Courtesy of DonkeyHotey

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