I am sure that probably came as the price for his speaking role.
I am quite confident that Cruz did not pay a price for his speaking role. If anything, the reverse occurred. What does he gain with a speaking role?
Cruz will speak about the need to beat Hillary Clinton, possibly without mentioning Trump. In the end, he'll state he's "voting for the Republican ticket" or something like that. He's not going to be like Romney or Rockefeller in 1964 who paid the price for not supporting Goldwater.
Truthfully, I think that the whole #NeverTrump crowd have dug their political graves. None of these folks will ever be viable Presidential or Vice Presidential candidates, and a number of them will face stiff primaries in the future for their apostasy.
But neither of them paid a price! Romney was the frontrunner for President for the next three years until he sunk himself with his own gaffes in '67, and Rockefeller rebounded just fine and became Vice President -- a much higher office than Goldwater ever achieved.
And, yeah, so far downballot only Trump supporters are being defeated in primaries. You're still a minority of the party, essentially everywhere.
