The Ted Cruz campaign has made it very clear how it believes its candidate can win the nomination: by unifying the party’s ideologically consistent and self-described “very conservative” base with the somewhat more populist, evangelical voters who make up the party’s rank and file in the South. …
The relatively friendly demographic characteristics of the state make South Carolina a key test for Mr. Cruz. A poor result there would call into question whether he could build a broad enough coalition in the other states to win the nomination. CONT.
Nate Cohn, New York Times