DES MOINES — Ted Cruz plans to win Iowa by losing the popularity contest among elected Republicans in Washington.

Many Republicans in Congress, asked who they'd prefer as their party's presidential nominee if the choice is reduced to the Texas senator and Donald Trump, side with the New York celebrity businessman, albeit reluctantly. While seemingly a boon to Trump, Cruz believes this could give him a boost in his competitive battle for Iowa with the billionaire by making it easier for to claim the mantle of true political outsider.

That's not easy to do in a race against a populist who has framed his campaign as a hostile takeover of Washington on behalf of a disenfranchised "silent majority." But Cruz supporters contend that Trump being embraced by Republican power brokers, and veteran party figures like Bob Dole, a former Senate majority leader and the 1996 GOP presidential nominee, undermines the billionare real estate mogul's outsider pitch. So does Trump's sudden penchant for claiming he is the best qualified for cutting deals with liberal Democrats in Congress, such as Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

Simultaneously, supporters believe this bolsters Cruz's case that he's the only candidate who would change how D.C. operates. During three years in the Senate, Cruz has has carefully and deliberately cultivated the image of a political outsider willing to pick fights with the governing establishment, even if that means challenging the power structure of his own party.

"It's absolutely a good narrative for Cruz, and it's also true," said Steve Deace, an conservative talk radio host in Iowa who is backing the Texan. Trump, Deace continued, "is absolutely doing Cruz a favor" by highlighting the fact that the senator has few friends in Washington.

"Cruz loves that the establishment hates him," added Jim Dornan, a GOP strategist based in the nation's capital. "It plays into his narrative that he's an outsider bucking the system, even though he's a sitting U.S. senator."

There's no guarantee that congressional Republicans' personal animosity toward Cruz will be an asset down the line. At some point in the primary, if not the general election, Cruz's opponents might be able to make an effective case that the senator would not be able to get anything done because he doesn't get along with anyone that he would have to work with as president. But in many of the early primary states, where conservatives are influential, Cruz's bad reputation on Capitol Hill could work to his advantage.

Cruz clearly thinks so, at least.

Among Cruz's latest talking points on the stump has been his charge that the Republican establishment in Washington is "abandoning" Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, another of his White House rivals, for Trump. If that didn't make clear that Cruz views this message as beneficial, he told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, when asked to respond directly to the Trump's agument that "no one likes Ted Cruz," that the New Yorker "omitted two words from what he meant to say, which is, no one in Washington likes Cruz."

On Tuesday, the Cruz campaign issued an email fundraising appeal asking supporters to donate because "the establishment would rather see anyone but me as president," even if the alternative is Trump. This money pitch reaffirmed that Trump as the GOP establishment's pick is exactly his preferred portrayal of the 69-year-old reality television star. Indeed, it's the contrast the Texan has sought to draw with all of his GOP competitors since Day 1 of his presidential campaign.

"Donald is just confirming Cruz' message for him when he says this," said Charlie Black, a veteran Republican operative based in Washington. "A good question is how many people in Washington like Trump?"

Rick Tyler, a spokesman for the Cruz campaign, did not dismiss suggestions that Cruz has relished picking fights with fellow Republicans in Congress to further an agenda that he believes is supported by conservative voters. Cruz, Tyler indicated, isn't worried about the resulting blowback that has led many to prefer Trump —despite the billionaire's political flaws and policy heresies. "Inside the Beltway, a candidate can accurately be measured on how serious they are about changing Washington by how unpopular they are among the occupying cartel," Tyler said.

The so-called establishment, or governing, wing of the Republican Party is not flocking to Trump in lockstep. For many in this broad community, whether lawmakers, lobbyists or political operatives, Cruz is preferable to Trump, given no other options. Even among congressional Republicans expressing a preference for Trump over Cruz, they describe it as choosing the lesser of two evils. So, why do so many find Cruz less palatable? Of the two, he is the reliable conservative Republican.

The answer to that question begins with the government shutdown of 2013, and continues with the acerbic rhetoric Cruz has used to describe many Republicans in Congress.

In the fall of 2013, Cruz was the driving force behind congressional insurgents' move to block President Obama from implementing the Affordable Care Act by shutting down the government. Specifically, House Republicans, goaded by Cruz and conservative outside groups, refused to provide the votes the GOP needed to pass government funding bill unless money for Obamacare was withheld. The strategy backfired, and Republicans' negotiating position against Obama has been weakened ever since.

The majority of congressional Republicans opposed the tactics on the grounds that it would do exactly that. But what piqued their ire at Cruz is that they have always believed he knew it would fail, but prosecuted the strategy anyway to ingratiate himself with conservative activists in advance of a likely 2016 presidential run. Cruz's consistent description of Congressional Republicans as corrupt liars has only compounded their distaste for the Texan.

"Cruz just doesn't have a lick of good will among people who've been on his team, even among congressmen and operatives who are hardcore conservatives," a Republican consultant told the Washington Examiner on condition of anonymity. "He's a reliable conservative to people who watch him on Fox or read his mail pieces; to people who've dealt with him in person, he's a self-promoter who never just grabs an oar and rows the boat for the cause."

Cruz also has his fans. They contend that Cruz hate stems from the fact that the senator exposed Congressional Republicans' risk-averse, go-along-to-get-along behavior on Capitol Hill. Republicans could have done a lot more to counter the Obama agenda, Cruz's supporters like Michael Needham, tend to believe, they just don't want to, or are too afraid. Needham is CEO of Heritage Action for America, a conservative advocacy group that worked with the senator to develop and drive the campaign to shut down the government as a means to halt Obamacare.

"These senators are attacking Ted Cruz because he disrupted the status quo in Washington," said Needham, who is neutral in the GOP primary. "The establishment thrives on fake votes that allow lawmakers to say one thing at home and do something completely different in DC. Ted Cruz has rightly drawn attention to that fraud."

There's evidence to support the Cruz campaign's contention that the senator is winning the battle for the soul of conservative grassroots on the trail.

He runs a clear second to Trump in most state and national polls, and is the biggest threat to the front-runner in Iowa, where the first actual votes will be cast. In a recent Gallup poll measuring the candidates' favorability ratings among Republican voters, Cruz rated 61 percent, higher than any of his rivals. Considering that Trump does not support policies that are traditionally Republican, or conservative, that's not a bad position for Cruz to be in.

The core message of Cruz's presidential bid is that he's willing to make enemies on Capitol Hill to produce the results that voters want. At a time when many Republican primary voters have lost faith in the government and have a low opinion of their own party, Cruz believes he has little to fear from losing the support of his colleagues to Trump. Rather, this dynamic could be a big help to his prospects.

Republican primary voters, said a GOP strategist, "see folks in Washington as representative of old guard — as looking to manage their own power in D.C. and not have it disrupted. To them, Cruz presents a threat to that, and that fits perfectly in what [GOP voters] want to see in a nominee; the things they want changed about Washington an party overall."