Lt. Governor predicts Ted Cruz will win Texas GOP presidential primary

This was a third place finish the Cruz campaign says was actually a good one.

Even though they finished behind Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, the Cruz campaign was surprisingly optimistic going into Nevada and then to the Super Tuesday states, including Texas, where they believe they will be incredibly competitive.

In fact, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick spoke to us after Cruz addressed the crowd.

He is the state chairman for the Cruz campaign and told us that a lot of people have already cast their ballots for Cruz and it will hard for others to play catch up.

"Ted will win Texas and what people haven't really thought about, the other campaigns, already through Friday of this week, over 250,000 votes cast in Texas," Patrick says.

"By the time the other candidates get to Texas on Wednesday of next week, 35 percent maybe a little more will already be in the can. Ted will have a lead."

Next up for the Republicans is Nevada. That caucus is on Tuesday and then all of the remaining Republicans, all five of them, head to Houston for a debate on Thursday night. Then we're just a little more than a few days away from Super Tuesday.