Ahead of Wisconsin Primary, Gov. Scott Walker Cuts Ad for Cruz

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is starring in a new TV ad for Ted Cruz with five days until the Republican presidential primary in the Badger State.

Walker, who endorsed Cruz on Tuesday, says in the 30-second spot that Cruz is "the only conservative who can beat Hillary Clinton," the Democratic presidential frontrunner. 

"He'll challenge the status quo, just like we've done in Wisconsin," Walker also says, nodding to his high-profile fight with public-employee unions in 2011. 

Cruz is favored to win the primary Tuesday in Wisconsin, where 42 delegates are for grabs. The latest poll, released Thursday morning, shows him beating Trump there by 1 point, 38 percent to 37 percent. A survey released a day earlier found Cruz up by 10 points.

Walker is expected to campaign with Cruz in Wisconsin before the primary.

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Cruz said Tuesday afternoon the assault charge against Donald Trump's campaign manager shows the "abusive culture" within the billionaire's circle.

“When you have a campaign that is built on personal insults, on attacks and now physical violence, that has no place in a political campaign," Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas, told reporters while campaigning in Milwaukee. "It has no place in our democracy, and I think it is a really unfortunate development. But I do think it help clarify for the voters what the Trump campaign is all about.”

Cruz did not answer shouted questions from reporters about whether the campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, should be fired in light of the charge, which stems from an incident with a reporter after a news conference by Trump earlier this month in Florida. Trump's campaign issued a statement saying Lewandowski is "absolutely innocent of this charge" and that he plans to plead not guilty.

Campaigning earlier this month in Illinois, Cruz suggested he would have ditched his campaign manager if he did what Lewandowski is accused of doing.

"Physically assaulting a reporter is a fireable offense," Cruz said, "and at the end of the day, the responsibility for any campaign rests with the candidate."

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Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will be in Houston on Saturday to promote a campus sexual assault awareness campaign during the NCAA Final Four.

The White House announcement hinted that the Bidens’ also have more than a passing interest in the games on Saturday with the two having attended a couple of the universities playing in the national semifinal games.

Joe Biden is an alumnus of Syracuse University while Jill Biden is an alumna of Villanova University.

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Opponents of Texas’ voter ID law are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, seeking speedy action ahead of this year’s General Election to ensure that the law is not enforced during the elections.

The Campaign Legal Center last Friday filed a petition asking the high court to enforce lower court decisions finding that the law, considered one of the nation’s strictest, was unconstitutional.

The case centers on whether the Texas Legislature intentionally discriminated against Hispanic and African-American voters when it passed Senate Bill 14 in 2011, requiring most citizens to show one of a handful of forms of allowable photo identification before their ballots can be counted.

The rules did not take effect until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act ruling in Shelby County v. Holder that forced states with a history of racial discrimination to seek federal approval when changing election laws or procedures. After a district court judge ordered the Texas law halted in advance of the November 2014 election, a panel on the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed that ruling, arguing that it came too close to the election.

In its latest petition, the legal center argues that stay has lasted too long, asking the court to take action ahead of the next election.

The law, has “injured Texas voters in two more statewide election cycles in 2015 and 2016,” the group’s attorneys wrote, "and, unless vacated, will very likely cause further injury by allowing enforcement of an invalid state law again during the 2016 Texas general elections.”

In August of 2015, a 5th Circuit panel ruled that the law has a “discriminatory effect” that violates the Voting Rights Act, but that it is not a “poll tax” barred under the U.S. Constitution.

The full appeals court will rehear arguments on May 24.