CLEVELAND — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will vouch for Donald Trump's conservative values Wednesday night as he makes his national convention debut as Trump's running mate.
But much of the attention will be on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a favorite of the right who is yet to endorse Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump's campaign was still trying to quiet a plagiarism controversy involving Melania Trump's convention address two nights earlier. A Trump Organization writer took blame for including lines from a Michelle Obama speech in Melania Trump's well-received remarks — after 36 hours of campaign denials that there was anything wrong with the overlap.
A day after Trump formally became the presidential nominee, some delegates at state gatherings around Cleveland were still struggling to come to terms with their unorthodox new standard-bearer.
Iowa delegate Cecil Stinemetz called Trump "the worst nominee that we have put forward for the Republican Party in the history of the Republican Party" and said he didn't plan to return to the convention floor the rest of the week.
Cruz had been similarly tough on Trump during the waning weeks of their primary battle, calling the businessman a "pathological liar" and "utterly amoral." He arrived in Cleveland with an eye on his own political future, holding a rally with hundreds of supporters who greeted him with chants of "2020" — suggesting Cruz's backers have no interest in seeing Trump become a two-term president.
Cruz was expected to continue sidestepping a formal endorsement of Trump during his convention remarks. Top Trump aide Paul Manafort said the senator would at least "suggest" he is backing the nominee, while other Republicans said Cruz would argue the importance of keeping Democrat Clinton out of the White House.
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.