With Ted Cruz out, is California’s GOP primary irrelevant?

Texas Senator Ted Cruz ended his presidential campaign Tuesday night, removing the biggest impediment to GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s march to the Republican nomination.

While Cruz did not have the delegate math on his side, his campaign’s long-stated goal was to stop Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates needed going into the party’s convention.

That’s where Indiana came in, along with other states in the Pacific Northwest and California.

And for the first time in a long time, the Golden State was set to play a large role in the GOP nominating process.

But that’s looking more and more unlikely, according to Dan Schnur, the director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.

“It’s difficult to see any residual interest left on the republican side,” Schnur said. “It looks like the greatest level of relevance may be with the Democrats. Even if [Bernie] Sanders isn’t going to be the nominee, a victory in California… would give him a great deal of leverage when it comes to the party platform and party rules.”

Jim Brulte, the chairman of the California Republican Party, said he was glad the Republican state convention was last weekend — before Cruz dropped out — as it was widely seen as a success.

“We even got protested,” he said. “You only get protested if you’re relevant… but if the convention was next weekend, I’d be two speakers short.”

Both joined Steve Chiotakis following the Indiana primary: