Alabama GOP Chairwoman Rips Ted Cruz — ‘He Let a Lot of People Down’

CLEVELAND, Ohio — It was nearly a year ago in Mobile, AL that the political world realized what a force Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was when 30,000 people turned out for one of his rallies.

Six months later, Trump would handily win the Alabama Republican presidential primary by a 2-to-1 margin over his closest opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

For the state’s loyalty to Trump and having won the support of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the first U.S. Senator to endorse Trump, the Alabama delegation at the Republican National Convention was given a front-row position at the convention’s venue, Quicken Loans Arena.

Alabama Republican Party chairwoman Terry Lathan very much reflects the state’s pro-Trump sentiment and she wasn’t pleased with Cruz, who a night earlier addressed the convention without giving Trump his endorsement.

Lathan, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, told Breitbart News on the convention floor Thursday night that she had thought Cruz let a lot of people down by telling people to follow their conscience instead of outright endorsing the party’s nominee.

“I was very disappointed in his remarks about ‘follow your conscience,’” Lathan said. “For me personally, I follow my conscience. I live with it 24/7. It keeps me on a pretty straight path. I’m not comfortable with someone asking me to check your conscience. Clearly my conscience says Hillary Clinton can’t be president of this country. I thought he went somewhere he shouldn’t have gone. I’d say it was a good ol’ helping of sour grapes. He expected people to honor the pledge that they all signed when he started out very high in Iowa and now he doesn’t. He’s welcome to his reasons. He’s welcome to his opinion. Well, America’s welcome to their opinion, too. And so, I will say that I’ve heard nothing but complaints about that. And he let a lot of people down.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor