Laura Ingraham: I Was Asked During GOP Convention to Primary Ted Cruz in 2018

Conservative commentator and author Laura Ingraham claimed in her book released Tuesday that someone at the 2016 GOP convention suggested that she move to Texas to primary Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in 2018.

“People were so torched by Cruz’s failure to endorse Trump that talk of primarying him ignited almost the moment he walked off the stage,” Ingraham wrote in her new book, Billionaire at the Barricades: The Populist Revolution from Reagan to Trump. “In fact, a tanned, good-old-boy type in his late 40s approached me and asked me if I’d consider moving to Texas to run against him.”

Ingraham witnessed the moment Cruz declined to endorse President Trump in his speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Moments before he took the stage, Ingraham said she told Cruz to “endorse” Trump in his speech.

“‘You gotta endorse him tonight,’ I told him, looking him right in the eyes,” Ingraham recalled. “‘Did you hear the crowd just now?’

Instead of endorsing Trump, Cruz told Americans to “vote your conscience” in his convention speech, causing the crowd to react with jeers and boos.

“The arena reverberated with boos and chants of ‘Endorse Trump!'” Ingraham wrote. “I have never heard a crowd jeer even after a speaker is finished speaking.”

The fallout from his speech did not end there, as he also faced backlash from some high-profile GOP donors.

In her book, Ingraham recounted how GOP-mega donor Sheldon Adelson told security not to let Cruz into his suite following the speech.

Cruz eventually endorsed Trump on September 23, four months after he dropped out of the presidential race and resumed his work in the U.S. Senate.

Ingraham also revealed several other behind-the-scenes insights about the 2016 Republican presidential primary and the general election that propelled Trump to victory, such as the real reason Trump did not choose New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as his vice presidential pick.

She also revealed that GOP senators “laughed out loud” at Trump’s plan to build a wall along the Mexican border in a private meeting.