This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Akron, Ohio • The chairwoman of the Republican Party's Rules Committee, Utah's Enid Mickelsen, says some supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz were "living in an unrealistic bubble" in thinking their candidate could emerge as the GOP nominee over Donald Trump but they "never came close" to garnering the numbers they needed.
"Some people who were supporting Cruz were very unrealistic, if not downright disingenuous about how much support they had," Mickelsen said in a video interview with The Salt Lake Tribune.
The supporters, led in part by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, failed in attempts to change the rules ahead of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and to force a roll-call vote on adopting the rules on the first day of the gathering.
"Some of the Cruz supporters were living in an unrealistic bubble about how many people were going to support these changes," Mickelsen said. "They thought they would come here and there'd be a thunderclap and Ted Cruz would somehow be the nominee. They never had that support."
Cruz was booed as he finished remarks Wednesday when he didn't formally endorse Trump, who will accept the nomination Thursday evening. Utah Republican delegates, who largely back Cruz, tried to counter the boos with applause and chanted, "Ted, Ted, Ted," as a show of support.
Mickelsen, a former congresswoman, said she believes the Cruz faction will come around to Trump's side now that the nomination is official.
"There are a lot of people having a hard time believing that and coming to grips with it," she said, adding that Trump wasn't her first choice either but that she came to terms with the ultimate decision.
" I had to go through five stages of grief, like a lot of people have had to do," she said.