Senator Ted Cruz Still Has a Plan and He's Only 45 Years Old

“How do we keep this going?” Jeff Roe asked his fellow passengers as their car moved through Houston traffic on a Thursday in early May. It was barely 72 hours after Ted Cruz had withdrawn from the presidential race, following his loss in the Indiana primary, and Roe, who had been Cruz's campaign manager, was already nostalgic for a candidacy that had just ended. It was, short of the death of relatives, the most profound loss he had ever suffered. “I didn’t think a single day about what it would be like to lose,” said Roe. “That takes a little bit to set in, and the first thing you think is to not let it end.”

His companions constituted much of the campaign’s high command -- pollster Chris Wilson, communications adviser David Polyansky, and political director Mark Campbell -- and they shared their boss’s desire not to disband. Referring to chief strategist Jason Johnson, Roe recalled saying, “It’s critical we keep J.J., who's been with the boss a long time, and the core of us together if we’re ever going to do a big race.”