I'm probably the outlier in terms of not finding Cruz that unlikeable-maybe because of my own history as a debater-but the truth is that he's not going to win based on his charisma. He needs to rally the base.
He doesn’t know how to rally the base, clearly. He hitched his wagon to the Alamo yesterday, normally a good move politically for a conservative in Texas since it’s under attack by PC zealots wanting to change historical markers. But, he walked right into highlighting one of his problems instead. Remember The Alamo? Ted Cruz? Heck, he couldn’t even remember he was Canadian.