Ted Cruz tells The Associated Press that his victory in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses is a victory for the grassroots, and he says his triumph is part of a larger movement of conservatives against what he calls the “Washington cartel.”

Cruz says his win “was a victory for courageous conservatives in Iowa and all around the country.”

The first-term Texas senator says that from “Day One, we built our campaign as a movement for Americans to organize and rally to band together against the disaster of the Washington cartel.”