Rick Santorum actually dropped out when he was closer (75% more delegates needed) than cRuz is (88% needed). He did the right thing for the party, and the voters.
Newt and the other dropped out soon after Ricky.
Yeah, that worked well.
Wrong....
Santorum dropped out around the 2nd week of April when his daughter was put in the hospital
Gingrich dropped out in May
Paul quit actively campaigning around May 14 to focus on delegate selection conventions at the state level
Romney "made" the required number of delegates, 1,144, by the first of June, after Texas voted.
Cruz studied the 2012 nomination process and has been working the delegate conventions like Paul did....while still actively campaigning, from Day One.
Will this make a difference? Who knows, but I don't believe Cruz is "hanging in there" when there's no chance to win. I think he saw several ways to win the nomination, by calculating several scenarios before the primary season started.
It also should be mentioned that with Kasich still in and Rubio retaining his delegates, Cruz may know something that Trump's campaign hasn't even looked at, per primary rules.
I would guess this is "part" of the reason Trump met with the GOPe so they could reiterate what the rules are since he keeps whining about "stealing" his delegates. He should have hired someone like Manafort before the election even started...it remains to be seen if Manafort can play "catch up".
I've already voted in my primary....and we shall see what the rest of the country does. If Trump gets the required number of delegates before the convention, then we have our nominee for the General. If he doesn't, it will be played out by the rules of the Republican nomination process, as it has been in years past.