The establishment and MSM would prefer Trump to Cruz. Cruz really scares the hell out of GOPe, Democrats and the press. Look at all the hits he's been in the last 4 years from all sides. Cruz does better against Hillary than Trump, even in these polls where he has a huge lead over Cruz.
Let's scrape off the bull hockey.
In the real world, Cruz is a Republican factional leader whose career has been firmly within the Republican party network. He clerked for two Republican judges. He practiced law in Washington for a law firm well-connected to Republicans on Capitol Hill. He worked for George W. Bush's presidential campaign, then had two jobs in Washington in the Bush administration. He was then appointed solicitor general of Texas by Rick Perry, who succeeded Bush as the state's governor. And Cruz has been a U.S. senator since January 2013.But the fact that people dislike him personally inside the Beltway is evidence that he’s well connected among insider Republicans. They couldn’t personally dislike him if they didn’t know him, could they?
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-01/ted-cruz-is-the-ultimate-washington-insider
The GOPe is not scared of Ted Cruz. He is just not likable to those that know him. Ted Cruz is part of the Wall Street lead construct that is currently infecting our entire body politic. The connections to the U.S. CoC legislative agenda, and Goldman Sachs are evident in action not words, along with his wife Heidi Cruz, an investment banker Vice President with Goldman Sachs, currently on a leave of absence without pay for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign. Heidi Cruz is also member of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and is a former Director for the Western Hemisphere on President Bush's National Security Council. So much for Ted Cruz's hype that he is a Washington Outsider.