INDIANAPOLIS — Senator Ted Cruz came to Indiana to try to resuscitate his flagging campaign at a pivotal moment in the Republican presidential race. But with just one day of campaigning left until Tuesday’s vote, he is on the verge of a defeat that would raise new questions about whether his mission to stop Donald Trump has become futile.
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday showed Trump leading Cruz by 15 points in Indiana. Other recent public polls have shown Trump leading by narrower margins.
Supporters hoped that Indiana, which has similarities to other Midwestern states Cruz has won, was supposed to heal the deep wounds left by Cruz’s blowout losses in six straight states. But it has been very difficult for Cruz to gain traction in the face of relentless attacks from Trump and hiccups in his own effort.
Nevertheless, Cruz is waging an aggressive final push in the state, including three stops on Sunday. He also appeared on all five Sunday morning news shows.
“It is an incredibly important state. We are competing hard. I hope we do well here,’’ Cruz said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.’’ “I can tell you I’m barnstorming the state, we’re in a bus with my family, we’re doing everything we can.’’
A Trump win in Indiana would not only move the mogul closer to the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination, it also would leave Cruz without a primary win in four weeks heading into the final stage of the campaign.
Cruz dominated the weekend delegate selection contests at party conventions from Virginia to Arizona.
Trump swept five northeastern states on April 26 and gained more than 10 million votes from primary and caucus voters so far, to Cruz’s 6.9 million.
He could gain enough delegates to win the nomination through big wins in primaries Tuesday in Indiana and June 7 in California, New Jersey, and three other states.
There were also some signs over the weekend that Trump’s campaign is getting better at grass-roots organizing. He scored delegate victories in Massachusetts and held his own in Arkansas.
Trump has scheduled two rallies Monday in Indiana.
He has zeroed in on Indiana’s manufacturing job losses at rallies and has accused Cruz of being dishonest and trying to wrest the nomination away from him unfairly by seeking to install loyal delegates to the Republican National Convention even in states where Trump won.
“Right now after this show, I’m going to Indiana. We’re going to have Bobby Knight. We’re going to have other people that are unbelievable,’’ Trump said on “Fox News Sunday,’’ mentioning the popular former Indiana University men’s basketball coach who is campaigning for him.
Cruz’s Indiana strategy is both urgent and unconventional. On the campaign trail, he has encouraged Republicans to reject Trump’s brash style in favor of a steadier and more positive approach — a jarring argument for someone who has built his political career on fighting with Republican leaders and creating turbulence in his party.
“It is the common sense and good judgment of the Hoosier State that is the one thing that stands between us and plunging over the cliff,’’ Cruz said at a convention hall rally in South Bend on Thursday.
He continued: “The people of Indiana will make a choice: Do we want to get behind a campaign that is based on yelling and screaming and cursing and insults? Or do we want to unify behind a positive, optimistic, forward-looking conservative campaign?’’
