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 At the same party convention that was the backdrop for chaotic
protests against Trump on Friday, Cruz tried to woo party members
with support for their long-time issues, such as lower taxes and a
harder line on immigration.
Former California Governor Pete Wilson gave Cruz his endorsement as
he introduced the senator from Texas.
Cruz received more applause at the convention than either Trump or
third-place candidate Ohio Governor John Kasich, who also spoke on
Friday.
"If we're fractured and we're divided, Hillary Clinton wins and the
campaign is lost," he said, referring to the Democratic Party's
front-runner in the Nov. 8 election for the White House.
Now mathematically eliminated from securing the nomination on the
first ballot at the party's convention in Cleveland in July, Cruz
aims to stop Trump from receiving the 1,237 delegates needed to win
the nomination outright, forcing a contested convention.
 However, the prospect of him being able to do so has grown
increasingly slim.
Trump, a billionaire businessman and former reality TV star, has
continued to notch up wins in the nation's nominating contests,
including a five-state sweep of the latest string of contests last
Tuesday.
Cruz has downplayed the severity of the losses and in his speech
Saturday looked forward to upcoming contests, which he has said will
put him on the path to thwarting Trump.
"California is going to decide this Republican primary," he said,
referring to the state's June 7 contest.
Trump has been at odds with the party's establishment and has called
the system for nominating its candidate "rigged."
Critics say he has played on the fears of his supporters, especially
about immigration, by proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering
the country and accusing illegal Mexican immigrants of being rapists
and criminals.
On Thursday and Friday, anti-Trump protests erupted outside the
candidate's California events. On Friday, he was forced to halt his
motorcade and go through a back entrance to a hotel to give a speech
to the convention and avoid several hundred loud protesters gathered
outside.
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Cruz hopes to slow Trump's march toward the nomination in Indiana's
primary on Tuesday. The state awards its 57 delegates on a
winner-take-all basis by congressional district, possibly granting
Cruz a windfall of pledged delegates.
A Real Clear Politics polling aggregation in the state shows Cruz
just behind Trump, 35.2 percent to 37.5 percent.
Polls show Cruz has more of a challenge in delegate-rich California,
where he lags Trump 28.3 percent to 45.7 percent.
In an indication of efforts to court the state, Cruz on Wednesday
made the unusual move of naming a vice presidential running mate,
onetime presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina, who was formerly a chief
executive of the California technology company Hewlett-Packard Co.
On Saturday night, she urged the crowd of party faithful, many of
whom had backed her as the party's nominee in a failed bid for U.S.
senate in 2010, to join her in supporting Cruz.
In a dynamic and combative speech, she urged Kasich to get out of
the race, and challenged the idea that Trump had locked up the
nomination.
"Donald Trump was here yesterday and he was telling you it's over,"
Fiorina said. "But the 30-yard line ain't a touchdown."
(Writing by Alana Wise; Editing by Mary Milliken, Chizu Nomiyama and
Kim Coghill)
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