>The plan worked in the sense that Cruz’s campaign managed to get many of his supporters named as delegates pledged to Trump on the first ballot. Unfortunately for Cruz, that success opened him up to Trump’s smash mouth charge that the delegate selection process was rigged by party bosses to favor Cruz.
The part that still shocks me is how proud Cruz and his supporters were about it. If they’d done it quietly it might have worked. Or even if they’d hadn’t rubbed it the faces of Trump supporters.
Most likely, the Cruz campaign is trying to keep up the spirits of their supporters by touting victories of any kind and arguing that Cruz still has a potential path to victory. Cruz staying in until the convention may nevertheless benefit Trump by showing him as a winner and giving the GOP time to reconcile themselves to trump as their nominee.