Cruz saw the south as one-dimensional cliches, and thought that he only needed to win Iowa, place in NH, and then it would be an easy ride because the south will vote for whomever was the most outwardly religious and had the most country twang in their voice.
He fell into Santorum / Huckabee land and garnered the Religious vote, and that only takes you so far. I think he fell into it by accident with his preachy sermons, he needed more Reagan less Falwell, sadly he is probably a good man and lives the good book, and for some of us that is good enough. At the same time that preachy quality is a huge turn off to many like the Conservative Jew I had coffee with this morning. Dang shame the 2 closest to the Constitution, Paul and Cruz will be out shortly, and it will be Putin that can build a High Rise...