He’s stuck in the middle of the pack in Iowa, lags in polls, and much of the GOP donor class views him with disdain.
But Ted Cruz is embracing a novel strategy for winning the nomination: He’s lowering expectations in the early states while investing in later-voting states that hardly see a candidate before March.

In the past week or so alone, the Texas senator has taken his presidential campaign to Michigan and Massachusetts, staffed up in New Jersey and Tennessee, and skipped an Iowa cattle call to stump in North Carolina — all states expected to vote in March, with the exception of New Jersey, which has a primary slated for June 2016.

It’s a risky bet that defies the usual wisdom — and historical precedent — that a candidate must achieve an early-state victory to stay in the game. But Cruz’s team is bracing for a long fight based on picking up delegates — a battle they plan to stretch all the way to the convention, where, the theory goes, he’ll be the last conservative standing — though a contested convention hasn’t happened in nearly 40 years.