Senator Joni Ernst, veteran, elected in ‘14 by 8 points statewide after defeating a large field of primary competitors, including Trump’s state chair, with the help of an endorsement from Sarah Palin. Still considered an exemplar of ‘Iowa Nice” in spite of using similar mailers. Which seemed to have worked well for her.
It’s kind of misleading to call the two examples “similar.” As the old adage goes, the devil is in the details.
That envelope of Cruz’s campaign was at best sleazy looking like those “almost contest wins” that come from time to time, and at worst frighteningly misleading that some agency has policed your voting record and found a “violation” which is nothing more than one’s right to sit out (and might have been the thing with integrity to do if one, say, had Alzheimers badly enough). We do not yet have forced plebiscites.