To the extent we can measure these things, it looks like Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Tex.) big gamble — refusing to endorse Donald Trump at the Republican convention last week — may have been a bad bet, at least with Republicans.
A new CNN/ORC poll finds that Cruz’s public image among Republicans dropped some 50 percent from his image pre-convention. Before the convention, almost two-thirds of Republicans had a positive image of him. That’s the kind of likability ratings that politicians who thirst for higher office dream of. (And we have reason to believe Cruz has his eye on 2020.)
After the convention, Cruz’s likability tanked. Now, roughly one-third of Republicans have a positive image of him.
When politicians’ numbers drop this dramatically, it’s usually because of something they did. That something for Cruz, of course, was when he provided one of the most dramatic and defiant moments of the GOP convention by refusing to endorse Trump.
Read more at the Washington Post.
