I'm late to this party, but I'd point to the fact that many of the states Cruz lost in the south have open primaries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_primar

I'm late to this party, but I'd point to the fact that many of the states Cruz lost in the south have open primaries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_primaries_in_the_United_States#States_with_an_open_presidential_primary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_primaries_in_the_United_S... Actually, the following states were lost by Cruz and have open primaries: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina (All races' primaries open for unaffiliated voters only), South Carolina