Longtime Perry Strategist Helped Cruz in Final Stretch

In the final weeks of his presidential campaign, Ted Cruz received some help from what would have once been considered an unlikely source.

Dave Carney, a longtime adviser to former Gov. Rick Perry and top strategist for Cruz's 2012 U.S. Senate rival, last month joined Trusted Leadership PAC, the top super PAC supporting Cruz. Carney signed on as Cruz was coming off a breakthrough victory in Wisconsin — and navigating much less friendly territory in the northeast.

"We brought Dave on in mid-April to help manage such a fast-paced environment," Chip Roy, executive director of Trusted Leadership PAC, said in a statement. "His experience, connections and knowledge supplemented an already strong team as we geared up for the homestretch to the nomination. Unfortunately after Indiana, that wasn't to be — but we know we left everything on the field working to elect Sen. Cruz."

The New Hampshire-based Carney is well-known in Texas politics, having advised Perry from his 1998 run for lieutenant governor through his ill-fated 2012 bid for the White House. Carney also served as a senior adviser to then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in his bitter battle against Cruz to replace U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. And Carney remains a top adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott after engineering his landslide victory in the 2014 gubernatorial race.

Cruz bowed out of the race Tuesday after suffering a devastating loss to Trump in the Indiana primary. Cruz had been assisted by a number of outside groups including Trusted Leadership PAC, which was set up earlier this year as a vehicle to consolidate a constellation of pro-Cruz super PACs.