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Cruz needs a strong showing in Indiana on Tuesday

The spots are virtually identical

Washington CNN  — 

Three days before Indiana’s critical primary, Ted Cruz’s campaign on Saturday released two ads linking Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, saying they’re “two sides of the same coin.”

The ads seek to compare Trump’s positions on taxes, Obamacare, firearm bans and North Carolina’s law banning transgender people from using bathrooms that differ from their biological sex. The spots are virtually identical, with one referring to gun control and taxes and the other mentioning Planned Parenthood and Obamacare.

“Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin. Both support raising taxes. Both supported Bill Clinton’s nationwide ban on popular firearms. And both support letting transgender men go in little girls’ bathrooms,” a narrator says in an ad called “Same.”

In the second ad, entitled “Coin,” the narrator says, “Both support the Obamacare individual mandate. Both support taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. And both support letting transgender men go in little girls’ bathrooms,” he said.

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“They use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate,” Trump is quoted as saying in the ad.

Both ads conclude: “Trump and Hillary: Do we really want two big government liberals on the ballot in November?”

Cruz can no longer mathematically capture the 1,237 delegates necessary to clinch the Republican nomination ahead of the party’s convention in July. But he hopes a strong showing in the Hoosier State on Tuesday could help block Trump’s ability to gain the necessary delegates and force the party into a contested convention.