Jason Noble, William Petroski, Brianne Pfannenstiel, and Andy Davis

DesMoines

CEDAR FALLS, Ia. — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz captured 11 of the 12 national party convention delegates chosen at four party meetings held across Iowa on Saturday.

The near-sweep in Iowa’s four congressional districts is the latest evidence of a well-organized national effort by Cruz to secure support from the activists who will formally nominate a Republican presidential candidate later this year in Cleveland.

That support could be crucial in the event that no Republican candidate clinches the nomination before convention — an increasingly likely prospect as the race between Cruz, Donald Trump and John Kasich drags on.

The Cruz campaign’s successes on Saturday come at the expense of Trump, the Republican race’s putative front-runner, whose campaign had vocal groups of supporters at each convention but showed little organizational prowess and will send zero committed delegates to Cleveland.

Delegates' supported candidate will not matter in the national convention’s first round of balloting, but it could be decisive in subsequent rounds, as delegates are unbound from the results of their states’ primaries and caucuses and allowed to vote their conscience.

Among the Cruz supporters going to Cleveland is state Sen. Jason Schultz of Schleswig in the state’s 4th District.

“We will have Trump or Cruz,” Schultz said. “I have not said anything bad about Trump publicly because I have people whom I like and I respect who support him. But in my heart and my mind and gut, Senator Cruz will be our next presidential candidate.”

Iowa will send a total of 30 delegates to the national convention — the 12 selected on Saturday, 15 “at-large” delegates elected as a slate at next month’s state convention and three statewide party leaders.

Cruz supporters may be poised to secure even more of those slots after packing the party committee that will choose the slate of 15 at-large delegates. Across the four conventions, Cruz backers won five seats on the eight-member nominating committee, giving them a strong voice in filling out Iowa’s Cleveland delegation.

The remaining three members of the committee are not explicitly aligned with Trump or Kasich and stressed their neutrality in the race.

The Cruz campaign demonstrated a strong organization from the outset of Saturday’s contests, peppering convention attendees with pro-Cruz text messages throughout the day and handing out half-sheets of paper at all four convention sites identifying slates of Cruz-aligned candidates for national convention delegate, national convention alternate and the nominating committee.

State Rep. Sandy Salmon — one of the Cruz backers to take a delegate slot from the 1st District — said she called all the district’s delegates in the week preceding the convention.

In the 3rd District, delegates received texts late in the afternoon just as voting for national delegates got underway asking, “Are you an IA delegate looking to support conservatives who will stop Trump? Vote for national delegate Matt Schultz, Jake Chapman, Wes Enos” — the three candidates on the pro-Cruz slate.

Trump and Kasich supporters and operatives were present at the conventions in Cedar Falls, Ottumwa, Creston and Fort Dodge, but did not put up teams of delegate candidates. At several of the conventions, the Trump campaign circulated hand-written lists of people Trump backers should not support as well as a lists of national delegates candidates who weren’t aligned with Cruz.

The Cruz campaign’s highly coordinated efforts clearly paid off.

Of the 12 candidates identified on the pro-Cruz slates, nine punched tickets to Cleveland. Two more weren’t identified by the campaign but have said they intend to back the Texas senator at the national convention.

The 12th delegate is Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a former Branstad administration official and former congressional candidate, who declined to commit to a candidate on Saturday.

“I'm going to vote for the Republican," she said with a laugh. “We're bound on the first ballot for the caucus winner. After that, I haven't committed to anyone. I'm willing to have an open mind.”

Amy Christen, a Davenport attorney elected as a national delegate from the 2nd District, said she caucused for Jeb Bush but would back Cruz at convention. And she made clear she’s not a Trump fan.

“I've got to see him change a lot of things,” she said of Trump. “I think he's too erratic.”