Cruz wins bulk of delegate spots at Virginia convention

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz supporters were elected to 10 of the 13 national convention delegate slots at the Virginia Republican convention Saturday, The Associated Press reports. 

{mosads}The remaining three at-large delegates from the state are supporters of Republican front-runner Donald Trump. Thirty-three delegates will be chosen at the district level, along with three party leaders who will go to the Republican National Convention in July, for a total of 49. 

The allegiances of the delegates won’t matter unless Trump falls short of securing the necessary 1,237 delegates to lock up the nomination through the remaining primary contests and the convention goes to a second ballot. Then, many delegates, including those from Virginia, will be able to change their votes. 

Virginia could be particularly opportune for Cruz as a state that allocated several delegates to former GOP candidates Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ben Carson, who could flip to him on a second ballot. Based on the state’s March 1 primary, Trump received 17 delegates, Rubio won 16, Cruz won eight, Ohio Gov. John Kasich received five and Carson won three. 

Cruz has fine-tuned his ground game to put as many of his supporters at the convention as possible, since his chances of securing the nomination hinge on a contested convention. 

At Maine’s GOP convention last weekend, supporters of the Texas senator won 19 of 20 available slots, outperforming the caucus results that allocated him 12 on the first ballot.