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Cleveland • Ted Cruz walked on stage at the Republican National Convention to a thunderous standing ovation and 20 minutes later walked off to roaring boos and jeers after the Texas senator refused to endorse Republican nominee Donald Trump.

"To those listening: Please, don't stay home in November," Cruz said. "If you love your country and love your children as much as I know that you do, stand and speak and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and be faithful to the Constitution."

Trump loyalists interpreted the remark as a slight by the second-place finisher, and boos and jeers began to rain from the audience, particularly from the New York delegation, and chants of "Trump! Trump! Trump!" interrupted Cruz.

Trump entered the arena before Cruz's speech, creating a stir as Cruz was concluding his remarks to roaring, sustained boos and left the stage grinning and waving. Trump offered a polite golf clap and smiled at his vanquished rival.

It was a remarkable and jarring scene at a convention whose main goal is to show a united front after a bruising primary.

There was bad blood between Trump and Cruz during the campaign, with Cruz supporters chastising Trump's wife, Melania, and Trump threatening to spread dirt on Cruz's wife, suggesting Cruz's father was an accomplice in the assassination of President Kennedy, and calling Cruz "Lyin' Ted" throughout the race.

Cruz's speech — which followed on the heels of a video and address from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who did endorse the nominee — mentioned Trump's name just once at the beginning of his speech.

"I want to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination last night," he said. "And like each of you, I want to see the principles our party believes in prevail in November."

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke after Cruz and addressed the flap, saying the audience may have misunderstood Cruz's speech.

"Ted Cruz said you can vote your conscience for anyone who will uphold the Constitution," Gingrich said. "In this election, there is only one candidate who will uphold the Constitution."

Utah delegates who were backing Cruz — who won nearly 70 percent of the vote in the Utah caucus — were mortified by the hostility.

"I've never seen such a galling display of incivility," said David Harmer. "Unfortunately, the behavior of the Trump supporters at the convention reflects the behavior of their candidate throughout the campaign. He has unleashed something serious that he cannot retrieve.

"If he's asking for unity, the way you get unity is by building coalitions, not by talking over invited speakers, not by shouting insults, not by interrupting a speech that was precisely designed to unify," Harmer said.

Phill Wright, the chairman of the delegation said the behavior was "very offensive."

"Nobody here has booed any speaker. It was offensive when you have people who aren't delegates sitting up in the audience booing a presidential candidate talking about unity and patriotism," Wright said. "He didn't have to say anything other than we have to support our nominee. That's good enough, I think, for an endorsement."

House Speaker Greg Hughes, Utah's most prominent Trump supporter, was in the nominee's private box during the speech and said people were in disbelief, shaking their heads when Cruz stopped short of endorsing Trump.

"I was pretty disappointed. Very disappointed," Hughes said. "In the Stanley Cup [hockey] playoffs, the teams that win or lose line up along center ice and shake hands. That's what they do, and in politics or sports, that's what you do."

"I think being given a prime-time slot and an opportunity to make his case for America and his vision for the future, I think that it was appropriate to endorse the nominee and I don't see how [not endorsing] helps defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall."

Sen. Mike Lee, who has called Cruz his best friend, said his senate colleague gave a great speech that was "vintage Ted Cruz," despite the furor from the audience.

"It's not normally what we aspire to as Republicans," Lee said. "We aspire to be respectful of people who speak to us. So it was disappointing that some people chose not to do that."

After the convention's third day wrapped up, Trump took another jab at Cruz on Twitter.

"Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn't honor the pledge!" Trump tweeted, referring to a promise the Republican contenders had made to endorse the winner. "I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal!"

The reaction to Cruz's lack of an endorsement overshadowed his broad thematic speech about freedom, widely believed to be a starting point for a 2020 presidential bid. That's something Utah delegate Selma Sierra is hoping for. She said she'll vote for Trump, but expects that if he wins, he'll serve only one term, clearing the field for Cruz.

gehrke@sltrib.com

Twitter: @RobertGehrke