Photo: AP

With Donald Trump the Republican party’s all-but-guaranteed nominee, Ted Cruz is reportedly campaigning behind-the-scenes to ensure the party stays as terrible as ever.

The New York Times reports today that Cruz is mobilizing his supporters to exert their influence at the national convention in July, where the party will officially select its nominee. That’s going to be Donald Trump, but there’s more up for vote that weekend: The party’s convention rules and a policy agenda.

Cruz, who the Times reports “spent considerable time this spring” electing his supporters as delegates at the convention, is apparently spending his time not running for president to make sure the party stays conservative as hell. In an email Sunday, Cruz surrogate and former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli instructed delegates to “advance the conservative agenda” by filling the Rules and Platform Committees “with strong conservative voices like yours.”

Mr. Cruz is planning a Monday evening conference call where, as Mr. Cuccinelli writes, Mr. Cruz’s former officials plan to “discuss what we can do at the convention to protect against liberal changes to our platform, and how we can right the wrongs in the rules from 2012!”

[...] But Mr. Cruz’s supporters and other conservative activists are also deeply concerned about Mr. Trump’s general election agenda, and want to ensure that he does not alter the party’s platform. Since locking up the nomination last week, Mr. Trump has made clear he intends to run a populist campaign against Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, indicating he is open to higher taxes and an increase in the minimum wage.

Cruz is still using the Cruz-Fiorina ‘16 logo in his emails, so it seems like he’s got a firm grasp on things.