RE: Cruz 4%
<< “ Where did you read that?” >>
I had to dig around a little to answer your question. I could not remember where I read it, frankly. YIKES!
The link I found is not the source from which I read about the 4%, but may be the original source:
ivn.us/2015/03/24 (whoever that is?)
“Ted Cruz was chosen ........ by less than 4 percent of the eligible voting population by virtue of winning his low-turnout (under 12%) Republican primary. “
“In short, Ted Cruz got 631,812 votes in the Primary {against a no-name Democrat) to win a seat that represents 26.97 people.”
The premise of this article seems to be more about gerry mandering, than Cruz, who is used as an example— that “90% of elections are actually decided in low turnout primary elections, due in large part to partisan gerrymandering.”
Hope this helps a little.
The article appears to be this one, posted the day after Cruz announced his presidential run. The author (and editor-in-chief of the site), Shawn M. Griffiths, is a Texan who has moved to California.
He complains that Cruz's vote total in the primary runoff amounted to only 4% of some number. Using the Texas SOS's numbers, we see that it was actually 4.8% of the registered voters and 3.5% of the voting age population (which includes ilegales, of whom Texas has its share — 1.68m, according to the DHS in 2009).
In the general, Cruz pulled 4,456,599 votes. A nice landslide, even though it only amounted to 34.1% of the registered voters and 24.4% of the voting age population.