AP Photo Ted Cruz's big, bold map The Texas senator is hunting votes in the most far-flung places to meet the requirements of an obscure RNC rule.

Ted Cruz has long contended that the GOP nomination fight will be a grueling, drawn-out affair that could stretch all the way to the convention. And he's taking out an insurance policy just in case.

Cruz is working the most distant corners of the political map, courting Republicans in the farthest-flung U.S. territories in an attempt to meet the requirements of Republican National Committee rule No. 40 (b), an obscure provision that currently stipulates that in order to receive the nomination, a candidate must win majorities of delegates in eight states or territories.


The rule — tweaked in 2012 to thwart potential mischief-making from Ron Paul forces —could be changed again. But for now, since the often overlooked territories count as states for nominating purposes, Cruz is attempting to pick them off to get him closer to the magic number.

"Whether you're getting Texas, Michigan and Ohio, or the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and American Samoa, each has an equal voice when it comes to nominating candidates to put them on the ballot at the convention," said Saul Anuzis, the former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, who is advising the Cruz campaign on territory outreach and delegate counts, and helped orchestrate a recent trip to the Virgin Islands for Cruz's father, Rafael.

For months, Cruz and his allies have been working the five U.S. territories -- Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Virgin Islands -- through surrogate visits, phone calls and other means. The Texas senator called the governor of Guam and dispatched a campaign emissary to American Samoa, located nearly 6,000 miles away from Cruz's Houston headquarters. Dennis Lennox, a Michigan political operative, spent several weeks in the territories on behalf of the Cruz campaign, holding meet-and-greets, meeting with mayors and party and business leaders and sharing information about Cruz.

The territories offer "a lot of lower-hanging fruit," explained a GOP strategist supporting Cruz, meaning winning a majority of delegates in those places is a more manageable endeavor than in the mainland states.

"If you win Iowa with 20, 25, hell, even 45 percent, somebody pulls it off in New Hampshire, those wins are meaningless, nobody has a majority [of delegates]," said the strategist. "That's where RNC rule 40 [comes in]."

The Cruz campaign is not alone in mining the territories for delegates: Elected and local party officials in Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands report hearing from a variety of campaigns.

A senior adviser to Ben Carson has had conversations with the governors of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, and is planning trips to the Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Puerto Rico. John Yob, Rand Paul's political director, already visited the Virgin Islands earlier this year -- his visit could have gone better, though. The Virgin Islands GOP is in the midst of a controversy over fundraising practices and Yob got caught up in a local political spat. The Paul campaign also has had conversations with Republicans in Guam and "have staff visiting various territories every four to six weeks to work with supporters on the ground to organize for their respective contests," spokesman Sergio Gor said. "We will also have surrogates traveling as we get closer to March."

Puerto Rico -- with 23 delegates and a sizable community living on the U.S. mainland -- looms as the biggest prize among the territories. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have both visited the island this year, and former Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno, who is backing Bush, said those two candidates are making the biggest stands.

But aside from the effort to woo Puerto Rico, GOP leaders in the other territories -- each of which has only 9 delegates -- agree that no other campaign appears to have matched the aggressive Cruz effort.

"I'm not the only Republican who's noticed it," said Eddie Calvo, the governor of Guam, who received a personal phone call from Cruz. The two discussed environmental and health care regulations, two issues that Guamanian Republicans feel affect them disproportionately, as well as Guam's political status, he said. "Sen. Cruz reached out first. He's really intimately looking at the issues."

On Rafael Cruz's recent Virgin Islands swing, he met with fellow pastors, spoke at a Catholic high school and attended evening receptions with GOP leaders. And the senator himself recently left a voicemail for John Canegata, the GOP chairman, praising him for his work and calling him a "patriot," the chairman said. Last Monday, Cruz named a campaign chair to head his Virgin Islands efforts.

RNC rules are subject to change during the final meeting before the convention -- and it's possible that rule requiring eight majority wins won't ultimately be enforced -- so the Rule 40 gambit might be for naught. And Cruz, who is seeking to be his party's conservative standard-bearer, might not be the right ideological fit in any case. In recent primary elections, the territories have tended to vote as a bloc -- and they've favored more establishment-friendly picks, such as John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

"Guam is a little bit more moderate than the heavy tea party-type candidate in terms of what our desire would be," Guam GOP Chairman Mike Benito said.

But the outreach alone goes a long way with voters who feel isolated in every way from the U.S. mainland. Romney dispatched his son, Matt, to some of the islands last cycle, and that played a huge role in generating goodwill, said Calvo.

"When it came to the Romney campaign, they reached out, they made us feel a part of the process," he said. "And the delegates showed our support for that commitment toward working on issues important to the territories so far-flung as those from the Pacific to the Caribbean."

"[Cruz is] trying very hard, and frankly, when someone sends someone out here, we're out in the islands, we're so far away, we really appreciate that," noted Philip Flores, an influential Guam Republican and president of the Bank of the Pacific, who met with Cruz emissary Lennox. "That someone would take the time and pay attention to us. And I'm sure Sen. Cruz is not going to be the only person to do it."

