MARIETTA — At a watch party for a recent Republican presidential debate, the people in Ted Cruz T-shirts cheered whenever their guy appeared on camera.

They ate corn bread and chili and felt right at home in their heavily Republican suburban enclave on the north side of Atlanta.

The scene could have been mistaken for a grass-roots gathering in Cruz’s home state of Texas (except that the chili was full of beans).

“He’s a great fit for Georgia Republicans,” said Louie Hunter, a Cruz campaign worker. “We’re impressed that he’s taking Georgia so seriously.”

Texas’ junior senator is indeed taking Georgia — and many other states — seriously in what could be a protracted struggle for the GOP nomination.

The tea party favorite, known for his no-compromise crusade against the Washington establishment, has built his political career on organizing grass-roots conservatives.

Now, for his presidential campaign, he’s raising cash and building a paid and volunteer army to strategically pluck off delegates in select primaries, particularly in the South and Southwest, where he believes his brand is the strongest.

Though he’s poured significant resources into the early contest states — Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — Cruz has also been establishing beachheads elsewhere, notably Dixie.

A dozen states, including Texas, have primaries or caucuses on March 1, this election cycle’s Super Tuesday. The day has been dubbed by some “the SEC primary,” after the Southeastern Conference of college athletics, because of its heavy Southern tilt. One of the biggest prizes up for grabs is Georgia.

Still trailing Donald Trump and Ben Carson in the polls, Cruz has a plan to surge ahead: Win or stay close in the early contest states; use home-field advantage to stomp the competition in Texas; and impress Republican voters nationwide with a dominant performance in Georgia.

Already, Cruz has a more extensive organization in the Peach State than any of his rivals. The campaign has enlisted 1,500 volunteers, and it’s aiming for 5,000 by year’s end. There are Cruz supporters in each of Georgia’s 159 counties and designated campaign directors in the two-thirds or so that will generate the bulk of primary votes.

“When the time is right, when it’s time to move, we’ll be ready,” said Kay Godwin, the director of Cruz’s grass-roots efforts in Georgia. Godwin said new volunteers are signing on daily, “and we’re training them quickly.”

Lew Stafford, a Georgian who’s been in the real estate business for 30 years, said he’s impressed with the Texas senator’s overtures to the state.

“He’s planted the flag here,” Stafford said. “He’s looking for the nomination, and the pathway is here.”

Though he’s praised the campaigns of the two GOP front-runners, Cruz doesn’t think Trump or Carson can win. His hopes are to inherit their supporters should they drop from the race.

Since being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, Cruz has branded himself the “consistent conservative.” He proudly points out that he didn’t abandon fights against Planned Parenthood and the Affordable Care Act, even when it was clear that those efforts would fail.

That adherence to principle should serve him well in the conservative South.

But some political analysts say Trump or Carson — or both — could flourish for much longer than Cruz thinks.

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