Cruz and Trump got roughly the same number of votes in WS and MI in the primary. I think Trump got about 10K more.
What gave Trump a victory in those two swing states in the general election was a coalition of both conservatives and populists.
Cruz? How is he relevant to the matter? Well, nevermind, he’s not, no need to try to make something up.
The question is what is the base? The states that voted Romney voted Trump. That wasn’t enough.
The new votes were not conservative and they are all that matter, since the conservative votes are given and have nowhere else to go. It’s the Rust Belt whites who have somewhere else to go, and they’ve proven that — in 2008 and 2012.