When Former President Donald Trump quietly huddled last month with a group of Louisiana Republican Party leaders at his Mar-a-Lago estate, it was part of a broader effort to cultivate the support of the powerful officials who will decide the party’s 2024 nominee.

It was also an attempt to not repeat the early mistakes that plagued Trump’s first presidential campaign — mistakes that have stuck with the former president some seven years later.

Trump has told advisers he remembers well what happened in Louisiana during the 2016 race. After winning the primary, he was outmaneuvered by his chief rival, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who understood that it was the state’s delegates that mattered at the Republican National Convention.

Cruz ended up performing better than expected in the state’s delegate fight. And after the imbroglio, Trump brought in veteran Republican strategist Paul Manafort as part of an effort to bring a level of professionalism to his delegate operation. In the years since, he has told advisers: “I won the primary but lost the delegates.” And when he sat down with the Louisiana Republican Party leaders, the story of that delegate fight with Cruz was among the topics discussed, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

Trump arrives at a campaign rally on Thursday, April 27, 2023, in Manchester, N.H.