The about-face — after Mr. Cruz told Republican delegates to vote their “conscience” at the party’s national convention in July — also came after Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said the party could make it more difficult for such holdouts to run for office and as talk of a possible primary challenge to Mr. Cruz in 2018 has surfaced.
“Whatever path I went down, there were going to be people who were dismayed,” Mr. Cruz said at the Texas Tribune Festival over the weekend. “There was no option that wouldn’t result in people being deeply, deeply unhappy.”
He said he doesn’t know the political repercussions and is “not smart enough to figure that out.”
“I’m trying to do the right thing: follow my conscience. What is right for this country? And my view, from the beginning, is do what’s right, stick to your principles, and the politics [will] work out,” he said.
