Republican elites are begrudgingly embracing Ted Cruz—and hanging Marco Rubio out to dry.

Panicked at Donald Trump’s dominance and dismayed by Rubio’s continued inability to do anything about it, some top Republican power brokers are turning to Cruz, putting aside their policy and personal misgivings to back the candidate they now openly label as their best hope to stop Trump’s GOP takeover.


“He seems to be the only guy who’s got some momentum, and is probably the best situated if there is anybody out there to beat Trump,” said Austin Barbour, a prominent Mississippi-based GOP operative. “That’s why there are many people like me—Ted Cruz wouldn’t have been our first choice, but as we go through the process, we’re reevaluating our vote, and he seems to be the guy at the top of the list.”

“Most people now think Ted’s the best vehicle to defeat Trump,” said Charles C. Foster, a Bush family loyalist from Houston who served on Jeb Bush’s national finance team. “I would say some are enthusiastic for Ted, some are just saying, ‘OK, Ted’s not my first choice, but anyone that can beat Trump, I’ll support.’”

“That’s a big motivating factor,” he continued. “I think Ted is the only possibility to stop Trump.”

Foster spent part of Monday afternoon writing a letter to other Bush alums and former donors, urging them to come on board with Cruz in order to stop Trump.

That Barbour or Foster, who have sharply differed with Cruz on substance and style, would even consider throwing in with the Texas senator speaks to how far the more centrist wing of the party is willing to bend in search of someone to beat Trump. Foster is a prominent advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, a stance which puts him completely at odds with Cruz’s recent suggestion of support for mass deportation.

And Barbour spent much of 2014 helping Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran fend off a nasty primary challenge from insurgent state Sen. Chris McDaniel—who is now Cruz’s Mississippi co-chair. Barbour backed Jeb Bush until he dropped out, and before that he supported Rick Perry, another former rival whom Cruz can now count among his supporters.

They’re not alone: Foster was on a list of eight Bush backers who transferred their support to Cruz that the campaign touted last week. Foster is trying to expand that list, bringing on board people like Chase Untermeyer, a former ambassador and Jeb Bush supporter who worked in both the George H.W. and George W. Bush administrations.

And on Tuesday, Neil Bush—brother of Jeb and former President George W. Bush—was rolled out as one of the latest additions to Cruz’s national finance committee, despite the ex-president’s previous comments that he personally disliked Cruz. Certainly, among some Bush loyalists there remains the perception that Rubio’s run represented a betrayal of Bush, who once considered himself the senator’s mentor, along with lingering anger over Rubio’s role in sinking Bush’s disastrous campaign.

Whatever the motivations, the defections are troubling news for Rubio. Already on the ropes after winning only two of the primary’s first 20 contests, the Florida senator has long been hoping for the establishment’s full backing to take on Trump.

But however much establishment figures might prefer Rubio, some fear that supporting him means putting resources into an operation that, even since the establishment field winnowed, has largely failed to slow down Trump’s march to the nomination. Meantime, Cruz has notched seven wins—well behind Trump, certainly, but it’s a longer list, and far more delegates, than Rubio or John Kasich can currently claim.

“Ideologically, I’m more interested in Marco, but increasingly, I’m beginning to think about him the way so many people felt about Jeb: Good guy but he’s not winning,” said David Jones, another Houston-based former member of Bush’s Texas leadership team.

Jones said he is personally torn between Rubio and Cruz, but added that while he considers Cruz a “wacko” on immigration, he also believes the Texas senator has the clearer path to actually winning the nomination. (Texas has already voted in the primary, but his view is representative of those shared by national Republicans as well).

It’s not that Cruz has done anything to endear himself to the GOP elite. He’s still the thorn that, just weeks ago, they reviled so much that many were attempting to talk themselves into accepting Trump, hoping his deal-making style and blue-collar base would be a better bet in November than Cruz’s hardline brand of conservatism should the race come down to those two candidates.

But following two weeks in which Trump waffled in denouncing the Ku Klux Klan, made graphic references on a presidential debate stage and dropped out of the Conservative Political Action Conference, some of the GOP’s leading donors, strategists and party wise men are reconsidering Trump’s run in Michigan and Mississippi only added to that urgency, with his delegate lead continuing to grow.

“Cruz is the easier pick” between Cruz and Trump, said Ed Rogers, a veteran Republican who spent nearly a decade in the Reagan and Bush White Houses and is now a prominent D.C. lobbyist. “He is a real conservative Republican, he has a clear governing point of view, he understands Civics and he is a student of history. All that stands in vivid contrast to Trump. For me it's not hard to be for Cruz.”

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime and relentless critic of Cruz’s, has in the last several weeks softened his tone, demanding an alternative to Trump and saying Sunday on “Meet the Press” that “Ted has made the best case thus far that he can be the alternative to Trump.”

“At the end of the day, I know what I’m getting with Ted Cruz,” Graham said, noting that he would still personally prefer Rubio. “If Ted is the alternative to Trump, at least he’s a conservative Republican.”

Another former rival has also warmed to Cruz: Carly Fiorina endorsed him on Wednesday, calling Cruz the only candidate who can beat Trump.

The antipathy for Trump is growing: “It would be a disaster for our country, an embarrassment for our country if someone like Donald Trump was nominated and, God forbid, elected. People say it jokingly, but seriously, if you’d go abroad, you’d almost have to pretend you’re Canadian or Australian,” Foster said.

Certainly, many establishment figures reject the choice between Trump and Cruz, holding out hope for Rubio or Kasich to make a comeback. Loyalists from both camps aren’t abandoning ship ahead of March 15, when the lawmakers will compete in their respective home states of Florida and Ohio.

Meantime, other influential Republicans intend to remain on the sidelines, with no appetite for backing either Cruz or Trump. As long as Rubio and Kasich are in the race, they say, there will be the possibility that the primary will go all the way to a contested convention.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense for anyone to drop out,” said Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist and political aide in the George W. Bush White House. “If part of your long-term strategic calculation is to force a contested convention, why would you ever drop out?”

Still, even as they keep pushing for candidates they find more palatable, some leading donors and establishment figures are steeling themselves for a future Cruz push.

Billionaire GOP mega-donor Stan Hubbard, a Minnesota media mogul who has donated $10,000 to an anti-Trump super PAC, initially was turned off by the degree to which Cruz’s campaign is centered on Christian themes, and still has reservations about Cruz’s religious rhetoric. “I don’t think religion has any place in politics,” Hubbard explained as recently as last month.

But Hubbard―whose family donated more than $100,000 to committees supporting Walker before eventually siding with Kasich―now says he’s willing to consider Cruz, if it comes down to the Texas senator versus Trump.

“He wasn’t my favorite guy, but I’ll say one thing about Cruz. I don’t think he tells lies. I don’t like liars,” said Hubbard. “I have to put that aside and say ‘what kind of a president would he be?’ He’d do a lot of things that I believe in, I’ll tell you that,” said Hubbard.

Hubbard conceded that Trump’s surprising dominance is forcing donors to consider backing candidates they might have otherwise eschewed. “Yes, that’s right,” he said. “Well, that’s life.”

Asked on Monday whom he’d vote for, Barbour said he was still struggling to decide between Cruz and Kasich. Hours later, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant would come out for Cruz. By Tuesday afternoon, Barbour said he voted for Cruz as well.

And Trump beat Cruz in Mississippi Tuesday night by 15 points.

Alex Isenstadt and Ken Vogel contributed to this report.

