http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/10/ted_cruz_is_in_a_really_good_spot_right_now.html

When Ted Cruz announced his campaign for president, I said he didn’t have a chance. The Texas senator isn’t just extreme—an ideological outlier with hard-right positions on virtually everything under the sun—but he’s unpopular with other Republican lawmakers. He stepped on the stage as a critic of national GOP leadership and has used his influence with grassroots conservatives to force confrontations like the 2013 government shutdown. Cruz has burned his bridges with powerful party figures like Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—on one occasion, Cruz called McConnell a “liar” on the Senate floor—and is toxic to many of his Senate Republican colleagues.