U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) shook off his disappointing third-place finish in Tuesday's Nevada caucus during a rally in Houston Wednesday saying, "I believe we are poised to have a very good night on Super Tuesday."
Cruz appeared at the Mach Industrial Group Houston with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, his mentor and former boss, who on Wednesday endorsed the tea party-backed senator.
Abbott introduced Cruz at the rally, saying: "To fix Washington, D.C., we need leaders like Ted Cruz."
Texas offers the biggest delegate prize on Tuesday, and Cruz's campaign is depending on a solid win there to survive.
Most polls show Cruz the favorite to win, but not by enough to take all the state's 155 GOP delegates under its proportional system.
Cruz called next week's vote in 11 GOP primaries in largely southern states, "the single most important day of this election."
Without mentioning Nevada winner Donald Trump, Cruz said Texas won't be swayed by "blustery rhetoric" and that "the time for the clowns and the acrobats and the dancing bears has passed."
Cruz received 21 percent of the vote in the Nevada Republican Caucus Tuesday night, according to NBC News projections.
