Republican presidential campaign travel schedule hints at candidate strategy

The Washington Times ^ | June 8, 2015 | Seth McLaughlin

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Location stops play role in seeking early primary victories.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush plans to launch his presidential campaign in Florida next week before heading north to make his first stop as a declared candidate in New Hampshire, home to the first-in-the-nation primary and particularly friendly ground for more liberal GOP hopefuls.

Former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, meanwhile, traveled first to Iowa, following in the footsteps of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, both of whom then bounced to South Carolina, home of the first primary in the South, and good territory for the kinds of social conservatives that the three men are likely to attract to their campaigns.

Indeed, GOP candidates’ early schedules say lots about their state-by-state strategies for making waves in the primaries and what early wins they hope will keep them alive for the later rounds.

“The travel schedule is just about trying to design a personality for the campaign,” said Larry Jacobs, political science professor at the University of Minnesota. “If you are going to New Hampshire you are saying we think independent voters and conservatives are targets for us. In Iowa, you tend to see the social conservatives, kind of the Huckabee voters, being more prominent.”

Then there are the out-of-the-box schedules such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who announced his bid at Liberty University in Virginia, a bastion of religious conservatives but in a state unlikely to play a major role in the primaries. Mr. Cruz then headed to New York, where he courted wealthy donors, suggesting his major early campaign goal was to prove he could raise the kind of money needed to be competitive....