Ted Cruz is leaving the door open to reviving his campaign to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. From the Glenn Beck Program Cruz re-opens door to challenging Trump for nomination

Ted Cruz is leaving the door open to reviving his campaign to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.

Asked if he would consider getting back in the race should he somehow win Nebraska on Tuesday, the Texas senator laughed. “Well, I am not holding my breath. My assumption is that that will not happen,” he said.


“But listen, let’s be very clear: If there is a path to victory, we launched this campaign intending to win,” he told conservative radio host Glenn Beck. “The reason we suspended the race last week is with Indiana’s loss I didn’t see a viable path to victory. If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly.”

Later in the afternoon, Texas senator shot down the notion that he would mount an independent White House bid, but did not explicitly rule out rejoining the Republican primary race. Some pro-Cruz diehards are holding out hope that he could still win Nebraska, though that looks unlikely.

"I have no interest in a third-party run," Cruz said during his first news conference in Washington since suspending his bid a week ago after losing in Indiana. Minutes later, he remarked, "Listen I am certainly disappointed with the outcome, that I disappointed so many millions of grassroots activists across the country."

Cruz declined to say whether he would back Trump as the GOP nominee, but signaled that his goal now is to become the face of the conservative movement.

On a call Monday night, he told his delegate supporters he was not planning a convention challenge to Trump, but he did ask them to come to Cleveland and be ready to fight over the GOP platform.

Cruz spokesman Ron Nehring said the call had nothing to do with stopping Trump. He conceded that Trump will win the nomination but stressed that there will be other important business for the campaign to tend to in July, when a set of rules for the Republican Party and a platform will be adopted in addition to presidential and vice presidential candidate nominations.

“Many people, particularly activists and volunteers and people who are actively engaged in the Republican Party, look to that party platform to make sure that they're in the right place,” Nehring told CNN. “And that's why it's important, and Sen. Cruz as the leader of the conservative movement I think coming out of this convention will have an important voice in terms of how that platform shapes up and making sure that the conservative activists in the party have a platform that speaks to them.”

Cruz also indicated that he may be unwilling to support Trump, who attacked his wife and suggested that his father was involved with President John F. Kennedy’s assassin. “This is a choice every voter is going to have to make, and I would note it’s not a choice we as voters have to make today,” he said. “The Republican convention isn’t for another two-and-a-half months. The election isn’t for another six months.”

Cruz also told Beck that both of he and the radio host want to support a conservative who will bring back jobs, defend the Constitution and stand with allies, such as Israel — all critiques aimed at the billionaire businessman.

“More broadly than that, Glenn, you and I both want to see a president we can trust, a president we can trust with power who demonstrates the temperament not to abuse that power. That’s what elections are about,” Cruz said. “The voters in the primary seem to have made a choice, and we’ll see what happens as the months go forward, but I think we need to watch and see what the candidates do.”

Cruz’s Nebraska campaign chairman, state Sen. John Murante, told POLITICO that voters there are still enthusiastic about the Texas senator and that he and his team have been using social media to encourage them to vote for Cruz.

“I have been advocating publicly that people continue to support Senator Cruz,” he said. “Our leadership team is doing the same.”

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.