Across the South on Super Tuesday, Ted Cruz beat Donald Trump in two states and ran close to him elsewhere.
NBC News exit poll data reveals that GOP voters supporting Cruz want a president who shares their values and those voting for Trump just want change.
About a third of voters on average said they wanted a president who shared their values. And from Cruz's home state of Texas—where he emerged the victor—to states delivering Trump big Super Tuesday victories including Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, the pattern was the same: If Republicans said it was most important that a presidential candidate share their values, they tended to prefer Cruz.
The senator captured these "values voters" by overwhelming 30-point margins or more in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and he bested Trump in this group in every state in the South.
