National Review: “Cruz’s remarks provoked backlash not only from delegates in Cleveland but also from allies in the conservative movement and top-dollar donors to his campaign. In the week and a half since his speech, some of Cruz’s longtime supporters have excoriated him both in private and in public, blowback that has far exceeded what Cruz and his team anticipated.”

“Unnerved by the scope of the fallout, Cruz is attempting to defuse tensions behind the scenes. He and his lieutenants are confident that the controversy will die down and believe that Trump’s every misstep between now and November will validate Cruz’s decision to withhold his support. They also realize, though, that his run in 2020 — not to mention his Senate reelection in 2018 — will be immeasurably more difficult without the support of the financial and grassroots networks he cultivated in 2016, significant portions of which he has angered with his recent actions.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “decompressed from his crushing 2016 loss by starting to plan for 2020,” Politico reports.

“Yes, he and his wife went to Mexico less than three weeks after losing the Indiana primary. But the Cruzes didn’t go alone. They were joined by his campaign chairman, Chad Sweet, his national finance chairman, Willie Langston, and his campaign manager, Jeff Roe, who came for part of the trip even though his second daughter (name: Reagan) had been born only about 10 days earlier.”

“It was a sign of just how tight-knit Cruz’s inner circle had become by the end of the campaign and Cruz’s unquenchable thirst for politics. Cruz has kept a lower profile since withdrawing but behind-the-scenes his political organization has continued to hum.”