Clinton campaign chair: Cruz is likely GOP nominee

The chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign earlier this week reportedly said he thinks Republicans will end up nominating Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for president.

John Podesta on Thursday told a group of 90 Democratic donors that he thinks Cruz is the most likely candidate to win the Republican nomination, followed by businessman Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), according to Politico. 

{mosads}Once dismissed as too conservative to win, Cruz has risen to the top tier of the Republican race. His campaign has raised the most money among Republicans with $26.5 million since its March 23 launch, and recently pulled ahead of Trump in the Iowa polling. 

As Cruz gained traction, Clinton paid more attention to him. Her campaign has criticized Cruz’s record on abortion and contraception, and last week Clinton herself called his plan to carpet-bomb the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) short-sighted.

“He’s never had any responsibility for trying to figure out who the bad guys are and who innocent civilians are,” said Clinton on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Clearly we have to have a much more robust air campaign against ISIS targets, against the oil infrastructure, against their leadership.”