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The Club for Growth PAC has never previously endorsed in a presidential race. | AP Photo Club for Growth endorses Ted Cruz

The political arm of the Club for Growth, which has invested millions in ads to stop Donald Trump, is going one step further and endorsing Ted Cruz.

“Ted Cruz is the best free-market, pro-growth, limited-government candidate in the presidential race,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh said in a statement.

The Club for Growth PAC has never previously endorsed in a presidential race.

“This year is different,” McIntosh said, "because there is a vast gulf between the two leading Republican candidates on matters of economic liberty. Their records make clear that Ted Cruz is a consistent conservative who will fight to shrink the federal footprint, while Donald Trump would seek to remake government in his desired image."

The Club for Growth backed Cruz in his 2012 Senate race, spending millions to help him win a contested GOP primary in Texas. But in 2016 the conservative group had been torn between Cruz and Marco Rubio, another Club favorite. One week after Rubio dropped out, McIntosh declared it was time for “everyone in the conservative movement to join in this important campaign to elect Ted Cruz.”

Club for Growth Action, the group’s super PAC, reported a spike in fundraising last month, as it ramped up anti-Trump attack ads. The group’s largest donation was $2.5 million from Warren and Jackson Stephens of Arkansas, two investment bank executives.