Once again, Donald Trump stole the show without actually appearing on the show.

During Fox News' two-hour voter summit on Wednesday night, the four Republican hopefuls working frantically to keep pace with Trump took turns pitching themselves as the best alternative to the billionaire frontrunner.

'I won everything': just who are Donald Trump's supporters?

Read more

Texas senator Ted Cruz positioned himself as the best general election candidate, citing polling that showed he would beat former secretary of state Hillary Clinton should she capture the Democratic nomination.

"Donald consistently loses to Hillary. I consistently beat Hillary," Cruz told Fox News' Megyn Kelly during the live interview in Houston.

"And so the question right now is how do we prevent nominating a candidate who loses the general election – or, for that matter, if Donald wins the general election, who the heck knows what he'd do as president?"