Towson, Md.

"Maryland is a battleground!" Ted Cruz bellowed.

"For once," said a man quietly in the back of the crowd, which nearly filled up the newly renovated American Legion hall Monday afternoon in this Baltimore suburb.

He's got a point. Maryland Republicans aren't used to having much say in their presidential primary, which this year is April 26. By now the race is usually wrapped up, for one thing. And since Maryland is one of the most Democratic states in the Union, it's not a priority for GOP candidates before or during the general election. But with primary season continuing on as a frantic hunt for delegates, the Old Line State's getting some new attention.

The Republican crowd reveled in it. Carly Fiorina introduced Cruz, but the former presidential candidate could barely get a word out before someone shouted, "We love you, Carly!" Cruz leapt on stage to a roaring crowd and gave Fiorina a bear hug. "God bless the great state of Maryland," he said. When Cruz began a line of his speech with the standard, "If I'm elected president," a fan piped up without missing her beat. "You will be!" she said, momentarily throwing Cruz off and prompting another round of applause. Whenever Cruz mentioned rival Donald Trump's name, the audience booed heartily.

Towson was Cruz's unofficial kick-off to a week of campaigning in Maryland as well as neighboring Pennsylvania and Delaware and the New England pair of Connecticut and Rhode Island. These aren't "natural" states for Cruz, as one campaign source puts it, but he'll need all the delegates he can get to stop Trump from reaching a majority before the convention. In Maryland, that means Cruz needs to win as many of the state's eight congressional districts as possible, which award three delegates each to the winner in that district. Another 14 at-large delegates are awarded to the statewide winner.

Yes, the few polls of Maryland Republicans have mostly small samples and large margins of error. But they nevertheless show Trump with a double-digit lead and with Ohio governor John Kasich either in a close third or actually overtaking Cruz for second place. Kasich will be a problem for Cruz, since the parts of the state where one poll suggests Trump is weakest—in the suburbs between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.—are where Kasich is the strongest.

But in Towson, Cruz gave it a go anyway, focusing on his recent, general-election-ready pitch of "Jobs, Freedom, Security" and calling on Republicans to unite. "That is our object more than anything else," he said. "Unity."

Unity, that is, around Cruz and against Trump. Cruz warned that nominating Trump would "hand the election to Hillary Clinton" and predicted a "bloodbath" on the level of Democrat Walter Mondale's haul of 13 measly electoral votes in 1984. He also cautioned that doing so risks a lot more than the White House, including losing Republican control of the Senate and the House, a leftward shift on the courts, and no chance of reducing government spending and the national debt.

Cruz's policy pitch was full of contrasts with Trump. He argued Trump was not to be trusted on judicial appointments. "I will not compromise away your religious liberty, and I will not compromise away your Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms," he said. He pointed to Trump's promise to be "neutral" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "As president, I will not be neutral," Cruz said. "America will stand unapologetically with the nation of Israel." That got the biggest, longest standing ovation of the afternoon.

The Cruz campaign has not yet declared how many more times the candidate will visit Maryland before next Tuesday's primary. Cruz will be in Philadelphia Tuesday evening to watch election returns from the New York primary. Pennsylvania may end up the better play for Cruz, whose organizational savvy may help him overperform with that state's convoluted delegate allocation rules.