The next step: A “deal” brokered where the Establishment candidate is the VP, kinda like Reagan and Bush 41. Watch for that if Cruz looks likely.
Won’t happen until Cruz wins the Primary. Reagan never wanted Bush as VP and did not decide to accept him as running mate until the 11th hour, actually just hours before his acceptance speech.
From his days as head of the CIA Bush knew where the bodies were buried. Reagan needed someone like that but he could not have Bush in his administration as head of the CIA or as National Security Advisor because Bush was wanting more. And he needed the GOP establishment that Bush represented even though his people were actively looking at alternatives.
Reagan was wanting someone more like Jack Kemp as VP.
Also the possibility that Bush would ascend to the Presidency after Reagan was remote as it had not happened since Martin Van Buren that a VP was elected President after a president’s term was finished. But those beliefs are no longer applicable today where money rules nearly all politics.