We aren’t accustomed to drama at conventions, so the end of Cruz remarks felt absolutely explosive. I wonder whether Cruz had any idea how the passage toward the end would play. He had already politely declined to endorse at the beginning of his speech, so it didn’t seem necessary to return to the topic again. My read is that his line about not staying home in November created the expectation of an endorsement among the delegates and then when he said vote your conscience–”conscience” now being a word associated with opposition to Trump–it stoked the angry reaction. But on CNN they are playing up the theory that Trump floor captains, aware of exactly what Cruz was going to say, whipped up the booing to embarrass Cruz.
Cruz has obviously been willing to go his own way in his career, but not like this. Tonight will put him on the wrong side of some significant segment of conservatives and open him up to attack on talk radio–both uncomfortable for him. He is going to feel the heat in coming weeks (there were reports that he was accosted in a donor suite after the speech and that Heidi Cruz had to be escorted from the floor). But this is a play for the medium term, not the short term. If Trump loses, Cruz will be able to argue that he stayed true to his principles when others–e.g., Marco Rubio–buckled.
Ted Cruz Declines to Endorse Trump