The past four Republican presidential primary cycles have been among the most negative campaigns we have known in our decades of political experience – and the 2016 primaries are shaping-up to set new records for money spent by Republicans to destroy other Republicans.

And last night’s Nevada Caucuses where Donald Trump took some 46 percent of the vote followed by Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, each with less than 25 percent of the vote, was proof that going negative can win you an individual state.

Don’t get us wrong – we want the candidates to tell us where they stand on the conservative agenda and how they are going to advance it to govern America according to limited government constitutional conservative principles, and we are all for hard-hitting ads that highlight the records and policy differences of the candidates who don’t support our agenda.

So we find it completely astonishing that anyone would seriously question Senator Ted Cruz’s conservative bona fides.

As CHQ Chairman Richard Viguerie pointed out when he endorsed Ted Cruz for President, “Ted Cruz has been a leader of almost all the conservative policy battles on Capitol Hill. Conservatives do not have to wonder whether if, when the chips are down, Ted Cruz will be right on the cultural issues.”

Conservatives know that Ted Cruz has fought for, and will continue to fight for the conservative agenda:

Defunding Obamacare

Defunding Planned Parenthood

Stopping out-of-control spending

Stopping amnesty for illegal aliens and securing the border

Defeating ISIS and the doctrine of Islamic supremacy

Eliminating the burdens of the Obama regulatory state

Reining-in the IRS, the EPA and other out-of-control agencies

And most importantly, he has fought to bring the federal government back within strict constitutional limits.

The last item is in many ways the most important – if you get the federal government back inside strict constitutional limits then many of the other issues on our agenda are taken care of in the process.

Republican Congressman Justin Amash (MI-3), one of the Capitol Hill leaders of the liberty movement, said it this way in an article he wrote for the Independent Review Journal:

An effective president for the people is going to face massive fights with the lobbyist class and Washington elites. It is not enough for a president to have smart advisers and well-rehearsed lines. Whether or not we agree on every issue, libertarian and conservative Republicans must choose a president who has the courage to stand up for the American people in the face of relentless attacks. Ted has shown that he is a true leader who can defend the principles of our constitutional republic, takes libertarian ideas seriously (even when he disagrees), and will not back down from the battles that must be fought.

Since Ted arrived in the Senate, he has stood shoulder to shoulder with the House Freedom Caucus, of which I am a member. Ted has consistently led the fight in the Senate against the Washington Cartel’s trillion-dollar omnibus spending bills. And while his Senate colleague Marco Rubio pays lip service to inclusivity while actually advocating unwelcoming and unpopular GOP positions from past decades, Ted Cruz recognizes that we grow the Republican Party by embracing new approaches that genuinely reflect our support for limited, constitutional government.

Take, for instance, Ted’s opposition to cronyism and corporate welfare. Unlike his competitors, Ted understands that when we allow the government to pick winners and losers, the American people lose. He isn’t afraid to challenge the rampant corruption in Washington, and he isn’t afraid to champion economic freedom. Ted won the Iowa caucuses with a principled stand against subsidies, even though pundits warned that no one could win the state without pandering to the ethanol lobby.

As the results in Nevada and South Carolina show, Donald Trump has done a great job of tearing down his opponents in the Republican Primaries, but that is not enough to win in November.

To win the White House this year Republicans must nominate a candidate who will bring together all elements of the Republican coalition and who we know will govern according to constitutional principles, who is capable of drawing a clear contrast with Hillary Clinton and the Democrats on the issues of importance in today’s political environment, and who has the brains, talent and discipline to fight Hillary Clinton and win.