Chelsea Schneider

Chelsea.Schneider@indystar.com

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz will continue his tour of the Hoosier state on Monday with stops in Franklin and Borden.

Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, first visited the state Thursday for a Republican dinner, and since then has crisscrossed the state to directly appeal to voters ahead of the May 3 primary.

He will begin Monday with a 10:30 a.m. rally in the southern Indiana town of Borden at Huber’s Orchard Winery and Vineyards, 19816 Huber Road. Then he’ll end the day in Franklin at a 6:30 p.m. rally at the Johnson County Fairgrounds, 250 Fairground St. For further details, go to www.tedcruz.org.

He'll also make stops at 2 p.m. at Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor, 329 Washington St., Columbus, and 4 p.m. at Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza, 401 Market Plaza, Greenwood.

More than a thousand people came to hear Cruz speak at a rally Sunday in Evansville, and he drew a crowd of a similar size the night before in Lebanon. In speaking with Hoosier voters, Cruz has attempted to draw a strong contrast between him and GOP front-runner Donald Trump. Polls show Trump, the billionaire real estate mogul, holds a narrow lead in Indiana.

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“Now Indiana is a battleground,” Cruz told the crowd Saturday in Lebanon. “Right now, Donald and I are neck and neck … and the entire country and the eyes of America are on Indiana. Indiana has a platform. Indiana has a national megaphone, and we can decide which path we want to go down.

"Do we want a candidate whose only approach to the problems of America is to yell and scream and curse and insult anyone standing near him? Or do we want to get behind a campaign with a positive, optimistic, forward-looking, conservative vision?”

The third Republican candidate – Ohio Gov. John Kasich – had been expected to visit Indiana on Tuesday. But Kasich's campaign issued a statement late Sunday that he would shift focus away from the state in a bid to keep Trump from securing the Republican nomination outright. Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard, co-chair of Kasich's Indiana campaign, said the candidate cancelled all Indiana events.

Trump has yet to schedule another campaign stop in Indiana following a rally last week at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, but his campaign has said he’ll visit multiple times.

IndyStar reporters Mark Alesia, Stephanie Wang and Chris Sikich contributed to this article.

Contact IndyStar reporter Chelsea Schneider (317) 444-6077 and follow her on Twitter: @indystarchelsea.

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