POLITICO's James Hohmann reports:

Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton said Sunday that the Texas congressman will focus his efforts on states with February caucuses after South Carolina.

He specifically cited Louisiana, Nevada and Maine as places where they are bulking up their operations.

“We’re focusing there to win those caucuses,” Benton said in the spin room after Sunday’s debate.

Benton guessed it would cost about $9 million to run a comprehensive program in the Sunshine State. He said they will not run television ads there, send mailers or do phone banking.

Because the state moved up its primary in violation of Republican National Committee rules, Florida lost half its delegates.

“It’s such an expensive state, and with their delegates cut in half, the math just doesn’t make any sense,” he added. “We’re a delegate-focused campaign. We’re focused on winning the 1,150 delegates to secure the nomination. And the amount of resources and time it would take to compete for those 50 delegates just didn’t make sense to us.”