Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, makes a speech in Washington. A new poll shows 62 percent of Republicans now view him as the favorite candidate of the GOP establishment despite his long reputation as being disliked by his Senate colleagues. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, April 22 (UPI) -- A new poll shows Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is now viewed by a strong majority of Republican voters as the preferred candidate of the party establishment despite his former reputation as a Beltway pariah.

The poll, conducted by the Huffington Post and YouGov, found 62 percent of GOP primary voters viewed Cruz as an "establishment" candidate, up nearly 30 points since December. Just 29 percent of respondents said he was an "outsider."


For months in the campaign, Cruz talked up his outsider status, seeking to capitalize on the mood of the electorate that seemingly preferred a fresh face to one with a long history in Washington politics. But as voters have flocked to GOP front-runner Donald Trump, a reality television host and billionaire real estate developer, Cruz has increasingly embraced the mantle of Republican standard-bearer.

The odd political marriage of Cruz and the party he has frequently derided is demonstrated by the party's anyone-but-Trump wing. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who previously dropped out of the presidential campaign, begrudgingly endorsed Cruz, despite his once joking he thought Cruz could be shot on the Senate floor and none of his colleagues would care.

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Cruz now has more party endorsements than any candidate, according to FiveThirtyEight.com's endorsement tracker.

Still, the Huffington Post/YouGov poll shows the outsider label is preferred among GOP voters in 2016. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they preferred a candidate who was a political outsider to someone with a large amount of experience in Washington.

The online poll was conducted April 11-12. The margin of error was not reported.

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