Story highlights Cruz was particularly critical of the Clinton campaign

He also congratulated Sen. Jeff Sessions on his nomination as attorney general

Washington (CNN) Sen. Ted Cruz offered his assessment of Hillary Clinton's stunning defeat Friday, calling it the "revenge of flyover country."

Speaking to a gathering of conservative lawyers in Washington, Cruz said the election "was an incredible vindication for the American people across this country, and especially those that you know in rural America, in what elites on both coasts consider to be 'flyover country.' This election can be well understood as the revenge of flyover country."

Cruz was particularly critical of Hillary Clinton's campaign.

"I think the Clinton campaign found themselves utterly flabbergasted. They had not even contemplated the possibility that they might not prevail. And that, I think, is the direct result of not listening to and not hearing the American people."

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