“Nor was Cruz’s stump piece the equal of Trump’s. Cruz delivered a stream of applause lines. Trump ad-libs about the news of the day. He is interesting and lively and gets far more media coverage as a result. “Trump talks about things that matter to people,” a Republican consultant says. Cruz stressed ideology.” - Fred Barnes
What went wrong with Cruz is exposure.
People got to know him a bit better. He really is just not a very nice man, and listening to him makes you cringe. I think the whole nasty business he pulled with Dr. Carson was key.
Trump’s ad libs about the news of the day are no more substantive than a bunch of old ladies gossiping about their neighbors.
Trump is a Truman Democrat. By today's standards, that's closer to conservative than anything the GOPe or the Democrats present. Trump's election will be a step in the right direction, in both senses of "right," but Trumanism isn't conservatism by any ideological definition.
As one who supported Cruz precisely because of his ideological stance, I can see that Trump presents to his audiences what they are looking for, someone who is the political equivalent of The Cable Guy: "Make America Great Again" is the national political equivalent of "Git 'R Dun."
He has my support and my vote. It is not like 1933 Germany where the only choices are Hitler and Thalmann, the Nazi and the Marxist: we know the other side will put up a Marxist, and we know the other side will paint Trump as the Nazi, but he is no Nazi. It is just that Trump is no ideological conservative either; that would be Cruz, and the voters did not choose Cruz. Vox populi vox Dei.
Won't find it stated any more clearly, and correctly, than that.
Illegal immigration matters. Islamofascism matters.
Potties "matter," too... but they're so much further down the list, you can't even see 'em from here, voters-wise.