[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cruz has to win BIG in Texas following his abysmal performance in SC.

: )

Cruz and Rubio virtually tied for 2nd spot in SC.

".. Trump got crushed with the 37% of voters looking for a "shares my values" candidate (Cruz-Rubio-Trump 37-27-8), and the 15% who wanted a "win in November" candidate (Rubio-Trump-Cruz 47-21-17), so those are the pitches that are working best against him (note that this is a much better result on 'electability' for Rubio than in New Hampshire or Iowa); where both Cruz and Rubio need to work at Trump is the 31% of "can bring needed change" voters, who went 45-19-16 Trump-Cruz-Rubio.

While Trump's win looks big, it's actually the second-smallest margin of victory ever in the South Carolina Republican primary (to McCain in 2008) and the smallest percentage of the vote for a winner, and Trump got fewer actual votes than Newt Gingrich did in 2012 or McCain in a losing effort in 2000:".............................. Source

[Red Steel]

It’s now 68 delegates for Trump at the expense of Rubio. Rubio drops to 9 delegates.

[Ancesthntr]

Cruz was supposed to win in SC. He was supposed to do incredibly well among the evangelicals. Yet, he failed to win so much as a single county or get a single delegate.

Yes, Trump’s margin wasn’t huge/YUUUGE!, but it was enough given how the rest of the vote was split to give him literally every single delegate.

I’m quite sure that the Cruz campaign never viewed coming out of SC like this as being “according to plan” or “ideal” in any way. Face it, Cruz did way worse than expected.

Keep in mind that I like Cruz a LOT...but facts are facts.