My take on that period is this...
There was a high amount of distrust of the GOPe at the time, including delegate fixing (where Trump won the primary but Cruz got all the delegates locked up) and RNC convention organizers making "rules" pronouncements suggesting that Trump could be disqualified on the floor.
People were reaching the point of wanting such an overwhelming victory that the "establishment" couldn't overturn it with disqualified delegates and floor fights, that talk of Cruz or Rubio or Kasich hanging on despite no path to victory in the hopes of a convention "Hail Mary" was seen as splitting the remaining primaries or depressing late state turnout to deny Trump a mandate going into the convention.
People wanted a unified party going into the general election against Hillary Clinton, and expected the likes of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan to go wobbly and limp in support of Trump. People thought that Cruz was being played by the GOPe to be the convention spoiler, after he was Public Enemy #1 in the Senate just the year before. Cruz didn't disappoint, when he refused to endorse Trump on the convention stage after graciously being given a speaking slot. Trump was seen in the wings, just in case Cruz chose to bury the hatchet and unite the party. It didn't happen.
So the anger towards Cruz lingered throughout the general election, much of it self-inflicted in my opinion. It was very touch and go right up to 9:00pm on election night. Many of us here who studied the polls daily knew that the MSM was cooking the samples and that things were much closer than they appeared, but we would have liked a more unified Republican effort after the convention.
-PJ
A logical and analytical summary! Excellent, thank you.
Once Cruz started blaming Trump for the Chicago
riot he was dead to me (and getting the news firsthand from an
acquaintance who was there , more violent than reported )