Cruz Strategy? Poach Rand Supporters and Defend Trump Supporters

Legal Insurrection ^ | August 13, 2015 | Fuzzy Slippers

[2ndDivisionVet]

Playing a long game . . .

The Ted Cruz campaign is holding its own in terms of polls and campaign fundraising; indeed, according to reports, the Cruz campaign raked in $1 million within the first 100 hours following last Thursday’s debate. His #CruzCountry bus tour is also creating a lot of buzz on Twitter, with enthusiastic supporters tweeting that they’ve just met the “next president.”

Watch:

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)

Winning the presidency is clearly Cruz’s goal, and he seems to be playing a long game.

While many other GOP candidates are quick to dismiss Rand Paul and his supporters and to disparage Donald Trump and his supporters, Cruz is remaining above the fray. As we all know, this is not a man afraid of the fray, so it seems that Cruz’s goal is to strengthen his own support and to win the support of the other candidates as they—he hopes—drop out of the field.

All of the GOP presidential candidates want to be the last man or woman standing, of course, and they all want, hope for, or feel entitled to (depending on the candidate) the supporters of all the other candidates. But for my money, Cruz is the one who has the foresight and humility to understand that the fight for conservative—and libertarian—support doesn’t begin or end with the primary season.

According to The Washington Post, Cruz is already looking toward gaining both supporters and donors from the now-floundering Rand Paul campaign.

Ted Cruz’s operatives are quietly reaching out to Rand Paul’s early supporters and endorsers, making the case that the Texas senator is their best bet if they want a Republican nominee who is friendly to libertarians.

Saul Anuzis, the former Michigan GOP chair who is working for Cruz, recently traveled to New Hampshire to meet with Paul backers and make that case, my colleague David Weigel scoops for the 202. The key to his pitch: Paul is floundering and Cruz is viable. Other sources tell me that Cruz is poised to roll out a few endorsements from 2012 supporters of Ron Paul who have held off on signing with Rand.

. . . . Cruz himself freely acknowledges that he wants to dip into the libertarian bracket. The Texan is on a bus tour this week across the South, with a focus on states with early March primaries. Katie Zezima, on the Cruz beat for The Post, relayed between stops in Tennessee that Cruz is invoking the Fourth Amendment, a Paul favorite, whenever possible.

On Sunday, during a rally in Huntsville, Ala., Cruz pivoted twice to libertarian-leaning answers. First, he bragged about being “an original co-sponsor” of Paul’s “Audit the Fed” bill. “What the Fed is doing is dangerous,” he said. “They are debasing the currency with QE1, QE2, QE infinity!” Then, asked about databases kept by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to track diversity, Cruz touted his unrelated work “to lead the effort to end the federal government’s bulk collection of phone metadata.”

Not only is Cruz actively courting Rand donors and followers, but he’s also courting Trump supporters should Trump’s campaign at some point implode. Politco reports:

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday warned that the Republican presidential candidates who are slamming Donald Trump do so at their political peril.

Cruz’s remarks, which came during an interview with POLITICO as he swings through the South on a bus tour, are among the most detailed comments to date regarding his reluctance to criticize the real estate mogul, who is currently leading the polls in the GOP primary.

“I would … note that an awful lot of Republicans, including other Republican candidates, have gone out of their way to smack Donald Trump with a stick. Now I think that’s just foolish,” he said.

Cruz goes on to explain why he thinks it’s a mistake to denigrate Trump and his followers, Cruz tells <>Politico: “Donald Trump had a rally in Phoenix, Ariz. [to which] between 10 and 20 thousand people came out. When you attack and vilify the people at that rally as crazies, it does nothing to help Republicans win in 2016. I’d like every single person at that rally to show up and vote in 2016, knock on doors with energy and passion, and turn this country around. If Washington politicians show contempt and condescension to those [voters,] that is a path to losing at the ballot box.” He’s right.

While other GOP candidates are avoiding Rand Paul supporters like the plague and bashing Trump and his supporters, Cruz understands that building a broad coalition of support is going to be key to winning not just the GOP nomination but the presidency.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Can it work?

[knarf]

I believe it is with Trump collusion

[GoneSalt]

Then it WILL work :)

[2ndDivisionVet]

Huh?

[Reagan Disciple]

Cruz has the ground game going at full speed. Trump has his hat and slogans..........but he’s hit so many nerves that they need to talk about all these nasty issues.

I think in the end Trump backs down and the field would have thinned out enough that Cruz comes out on top.

[knarf]

welcome ... and yup

[Bryanw92]

>>Cruz goes on to explain why he thinks it’s a mistake to denigrate Trump and his followers, Cruz tells <>Politico: “Donald Trump had a rally in Phoenix, Ariz. [to which] between 10 and 20 thousand people came out. When you attack and vilify the people at that rally as crazies, it does nothing to help Republicans win in 2016. I’d like every single person at that rally to show up and vote in 2016, knock on doors with energy and passion, and turn this country around. If Washington politicians show contempt and condescension to those [voters,] that is a path to losing at the ballot box.” He’s right.

Cruz is a lot smarter than most of his supporters on FR, who call the Trump supporters Trumpbots, Republican LIVs, etc. (I’m a Trump supporter who ordered some Cruz bumper stickers last week. I want to hear Trump’s voice in this early primary, but hope that he burns out by December.)

[9YearLurker]

Remember all we had to hear about Romney as the great executive and manager that the country needs?

And then he was utterly incapable of running a decent presidential campaign.

Cruz may not have the business exec cred, but I’d say his ability to forge a good strategy, build and organization, and then lead it to effective execution is looking pretty good so far.

[Responsibility2nd]

Some blaring errors here. This is a biggie.

Ted Cruz’s operatives are quietly reaching out to Rand Paul’s early supporters and endorsers, making the case that the Texas senator is their best bet if they want a Republican nominee who is friendly to libertarians.

Just because Paul (being a lib) is likely to stumble on a good conservative point once in awhile and if he does, and Ted endorses it, does not mean Ted is libertarian friendly.

[2ndDivisionVet]

[fingers_crossed]

Trump is my choice, next is Cruz. I am really happy with number of quality candidates, with backbone that we have. Pity the poor Dems, they have a candidate looking at jail time and the other is still looking for his microphone :)

[Bryanw92]

>>Pity the poor Dems, they have a candidate looking at jail time and the other is still looking for his microphone :)

I pity the Dems like I would pity a Nazi with a broken firing pin.

[Uncle Miltie]

Brilliant campaigning.

Everyone right of Bush who fails will be happy to throw their support to Cruz.

[Dr. Sivana]

Cruz is a lot smarter than most of his supporters on FR, who call the Trump supporters Trumpbots, Republican LIVs, etc.

Speaking for myself and many Freepers who support Cruz, I haven't called ANY Trump supprters ANY of those names. I admit that I don't trust Trump to stick to a position, and that I don't think he has much in the way of philosophical underpinnings. If he got elected and proved me wrong, I'd be ecstatic.

That said, he is also forcing a long overdue political realignment, and is getting the right people panicky. I also defend Walker against unfair attacks, not because I want to make friends for Cruz, but because it's the right thing to do.

[Bryanw92]

>>Speaking for myself and many Freepers who support Cruz, I haven’t called ANY Trump supprters ANY of those names.

Good for you! I didn’t have time to do a detailed statistical analysis of all the anti-Trump threads on FR, so I just went with an approximation on the none/few/some/many/most/all continuum. Based on the vitriol that I have read and received on those threads, I went with “most”, but could have used “many” as well. Note that I did not use “all”.

[DungeonMaster]

Cruz is playing chess.

[Dr. Sivana]

Note that I did not use “all”.

True enough, and we may well go on different threads. For now, I tend to view Trump as an Act of God, like a tornado or lightning storm. There's no point cursing at it, and depending on circumstances might even be a good thing.

I love that he is smoking out the Establihment types, making them show themselves. Nothing like turning on the light so you know where to apply the bug spray.

I also know that in the last cycle I had to keep on grabbing the best piece of driftwood that came along to avoid the U.S.S. Romney (Cain, Gingrich, Santorum, etc.).

We all agre on whom we don't want. Every conservative should be allowed one to two issues that he won't negotiate on. For me, it is the babies and religious freedom. For others, it might be immigration and guns. For others, it might be unions. That is what makes some of us Cruz, others Trump, and others Walker.

So I won't vote for a pro-abort, which includes being pro-Planned Parenthood, and Trump is dancing on the line. To me, funding the non-pro-abort part of Planned Parenthood is kind of like keep that Adolph guy on as a highway commissioner, 'cause the Autobahn is cool. But, as he has not actually voted the wrong way on it, I will be willing to vote for him in a general election against any Democrat.

[Bryanw92]

>>So I won’t vote for a pro-abort, which includes being pro-Planned Parenthood, and Trump is dancing on the line.

Yeah, I think that Trump’s recent comments on PP will be his downfall. He should have researched the real numbers on the “3%” figure and then exposed the truth, while making the statement he made on the actual abortions performed. He (and every other candidate) should point out that the internet (for the information) and ObamaCare (for the other non-abortion “services”) renders PP completely unnecessary.

He doesn’t need to walk those statements back. He needs to double down, Trump-style, and expose PP’s lies about the 3%.

[entropy12]

Romney had that sheepish smile on his face when someone attacked him from the left. But he did fight other republicans.