Stunned Cruz supporters ask: What happened?

Hours before the Cruz campaign's election-night event, the buzz was that Ted Cruz would deliver "somber" remarks. "Somber" became the word of the moment as people who were inside the Cruz structure, but not high-up enough to know what was going on, tried to figure out what would happen.

The room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel slowly filled with Cruz volunteers, many of whom had come to Indiana from out of state because they believed strongly in Cruz. Some came thinking Cruz would win the primary. Even those who worried he would lose Indiana were sure he would vow to fight on to the convention.

But there were clues that Cruz had decided otherwise. A lot of Cruz staff, who normally worked at headquarters in Houston and who rarely if ever traveled with him, were there in Indianapolis. Why would so many travel for this particular event?

Before Cruz spoke, aides placed two teleprompter panels in front of the podium. A teleprompter for Ted Cruz, the best extemporaneous speaker in the Republican Party, the man who never even took notes with him when he rose to deliver a speech? Something was up.

Then, when Cruz finally took the stage, he had with him not just his wife Heidi and children Catherine and Caroline, not just recently-chosen running mate and Indiana buddy Carly Fiorina, and not just father Rafael Cruz. Cruz's mother Eleanor Darragh, who has taken an active behind-the-scenes role in the campaign but almost never appeared on stage, was there. And then there was Cruz's cousin Bibi, with whom he is close, and her husband, all onstage. Something was up.