This story was originally published on nationaljournal.com on July 22, 2016 With a one-two punch, Ted Cruz ef­fect­ively launched his can­did­acy for the 2020 Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial nom­in­a­tion. On Wed­nes­day night, the sen­at­or from Texas took to the stage and urged party mem­bers not to stay home in Novem­ber but to “stand and speak and vote your con­science,” a veiled sug­ges­tion that his own con­science would not al­low him to vote for Don­ald Trump. This was ob­vi­ously a gamble that Trump will lose the gen­er­al elec­tion or, if elec­ted, would be a dis­aster, with Cruz a very likely primary chal­lenger after his first term. Then, at a Thursday morn­ing Texas del­eg­a­tion break­fast event, Cruz doubled down on that bet: “I am not in the habit of sup­port­ing people who at­tack my wife and at­tack my fath­er.” Cruz, who has de­veloped a repu­ta­tion as something of a polit­ic­al pit bull, then help­fully ad­ded that he was not a “servile puppy dog.” Though one can slice and dice the Re­pub­lic­an Party a lot of dif­fer­ent ways, right now the most sa­li­ent di­vi­sion is

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