Rick Jervis

USA TODAY

SAN DIEGO — He’s down by more than 400 delegates and got swept Tuesday night in five GOP primaries by the juggernaut campaign of Donald Trump, and the former House speaker is calling him "Lucifer in the flesh."

But Ted Cruz may have one last ace up his sleeve: California. The state’s GOP primary race here, which takes place on June 7, the final day of the presidential primary season, is shaping up to be the Texas senator’s last stand of his tenacious run at the Republican nomination. At stake: 172 delegates — more than any other state’s GOP primary.

Even if he still loses key GOP races in Indiana and Nebraska in May, California’s large delegate count could help Cruz block Trump’s path to the nomination and force a contested convention in Cleveland in July, said Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist. “California will be pivotal,” Jones said. “It has enough delegates that it could allow Cruz to turn the tables.”

Cruz picks Fiorina as running mate

On Wednesday, Cruz made the surprising move of announcing former GOP rival Carly Fiorina as his running mate, even though he trails Trump in the race. It was seen by many as another strategic maneuver to gain momentum and stunt Trump's progress. Fiorina has a history in California politics, though not a particularly positive one. She lost a Senate race here to Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer in 2010 by 10 percentage points.

Then on Wednesday night, former House speaker John Boehner described Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh.” According to the Stanford Daily, Boehner went on to say: “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”

Trump currently leads all GOP candidates with 992 delegates, according to the Associated Press, less than 250 away from the 1,237 needed to clinch his party’s nomination, followed by Cruz with 562 and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 153.

Late in the calendar, California is usually an afterthought during primary season, a place where Republican presidential candidates hold fundraisers but otherwise pay scant attention to the state. The last time the state’s GOP contest mattered was 1976, when Ronald Reagan won enough home-state delegates to challenge President Gerald Ford, said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at the University of California San Diego. That contest led to the Republican Party’s last contested convention.

“California is used to candidates treating us like their ATMs — raising money but never asking for our votes,” Kousser said. “Now our votes suddenly matter.”

Trump is ahead in most polls in California and has the momentum of Tuesday’s resounding wins. The state that introduced the world to the Kardashian family is expected to embrace Trump’s reality-television-style campaign, and the New York real estate mogul heads to the state Thursday. But he faces a Cruz campaign that has been steadily organizing here since last summer, recruiting volunteers across the state, dispatching surrogates to local party meetings and winning the loyalty of top state GOP operatives.

Last year, Cruz recruited former California Republican Party chairman Ron Nehring to lead his state campaign efforts. Nehring was named the campaign’s national spokesman last month.

In many ways, Cruz’s California strategy in is indicative of how he’s run his national campaign: grass-roots organization and surgical behind-the-scenes deal-making, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. “You have to give credit to the Cruz people: They planned for it,” he said of the candidate's California strategy. “They’re light years ahead of Trump.”

Thirteen delegates go the statewide winner, and each of California’s 53 congressional districts award three delegates. Thus, the contest is set up as 53 micro-primaries, where Cruz can rack up delegates by enlisting local GOP leaders. His early focus on California appears to be paying off in the number of activists across the state who are starting to coalesce around the candidate and posts on Facebook and other social media sites urging California Republicans to vote for Cruz on June 7, said Harmeet Dhillon, vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party.

“He’s the only one with an organized ground operation here,” she said. “The other two are playing catch-up.”

Ted Cruz's long-term delegate strategy is paying off

Another way Cruz’s West Coast strategy is showing results is in the number and quality of committed delegates. Candidates are required to submit to the California secretary of State’s office a list of delegates they would want for each district won. In January, Cruz’s campaign, led by Nehring and his vast political network, began identifying delegates for each district, ahead of other candidates.

The campaign meticulously vetted and recruited experienced political leaders, not just loyalists, who will be willing to back Cruz in a combative contested convention, Nehring said. By April, they had their list.

“We know they’ll go into battle with us to the end,” Nehring said. “These are not just names we pulled out of a phone book.”

In San Diego County, home to the one of the best-organized and active local Republican Parties — as well as five congressional districts — Cruz has been particularly active. Earlier this month, the candidate held a rally in a ballroom of the Town and Country Resort in San Diego that drew more than 2,000 supporters.

Just prior to the rally, he held two 15-minute breakout sessions with members of the local Republican Party — a move that resonated with local leaders and energized activists. In the meetings, Cruz went over his campaign points, took questions and urged activists to get people to the polls, said Dan Holstein, 65, a Republican activist who attended one of the meetings.

“There was a tremendous amount of excitement,” he said. “He thanked all the local volunteers. And he said that it may come down to California to decide the nominee for the Republican Party.”