Posted on 05/10/2015 8:15:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
More and more Americans are worried that life will worsen for the next generation, so a central issue in the 2016 presidential election will be “reigniting the promise of America,” according to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
And to win the White House, Republicans need to mobilize conservatives who have not voted in recent elections, Cruz told the Tribune-Review. People who were “uninspired or unmotivated to show up for either party” across the Midwest and New England — including evangelical Christians, Reagan Democrats, independents and women — are important for the party to court, he said.
Pittsburgh could be considered “ground zero for the working men and women who have been hammered by this economy, who are seeing their values, religious liberty and their constitutional rights under assault,” Cruz said, “and we need to reach those voters to win.”
Cruz, 44, the junior senator from Texas, was first to announce he will seek the GOP nomination. Since then, five more Republicans have declared campaigns; all are raising cash and visiting early primary states.
Cruz might lead the pack in fundraising, even if he doesn't lead in recent polling. Four affiliated political action committees supporting him raised more than $31 million in the nine days after his campaign began, according to Bloomberg News. His campaign raised more than $4 million in that time, spokesman Rick Tyler said.
“As I look to the rest of the field, I look to a lot of good people who I like and respect — senators, governors who are talented friends of mine,” Cruz said, but “I don't see a lot of candidates who are likely to energize and mobilize the millions of conservatives who are not showing up.
“If we don't do that, we lose (and) Hillary Clinton is the next president.”
Cruz believes he's the candidate who could win over conservatives. He wants to be president “because our country is in crisis.”
“What we are doing isn't working,” he said. “The Obama economy is a disaster. Millions of Americans are hurting. The federal government is daily assaulting the constitutional rights of Americans, and the Obama-Clinton foreign policy abroad has made the world a far more dangerous place.
“Leading from behind doesn't work, and today our friends and allies don't trust us and our enemies don't fear us.”
Road to politics
Born in Calgary, Alberta, to an Irish Catholic mother from Delaware and a Cuban refugee father, Cruz's birthplace does not make him ineligible to run, legal scholars say. The family moved to Texas when he was 4.
Presidential historian Joel Goldstein of St. Louis University explained that any “natural-born citizen” — defined as “a child of a U.S. citizen who happened to be delivered abroad” — can run. A brief written for the Harvard Law Review by former Solicitors General Neal Katyal and Paul Clement backs up that contention, Goldstein said.
Three former Republican presidential candidates — Barry Goldwater, George Romney and John McCain — were born outside the United States to American parents. Still, the irony of Cruz's birthplace is not lost on supporters of President Obama, who endured years of challenges to his birthplace and citizenship.
Cruz acknowledges that his parents, who “met over their love of mathematics,” had a rocky marriage fueled by alcohol. They divorced once he finished college. His father, an oil industry worker, became a pastor — a recovery on which Cruz likes to focus.
Cruz, the first Hispanic American to work as a law clerk for a U.S. Supreme Court chief justice, left a private law practice to work for the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and, in 2003, as solicitor general of Texas. He bucked the state's Republican establishment to run for Senate in 2011 against then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.
In 2013, Cruz championed the monthlong government shutdown that grew from a partisan battle over whether to defund the Affordable Care Act. His 21-hour speech railing against Obamacare enraged Republicans, who wanted to change the party's obstructionist image.
Some were concerned that his tactic would hurt the GOP in the 2014 elections, but the party won a majority in the Senate and gained House seats.
Evangelical vote crucial
The GOP nominee in 2016 needs Christian evangelicals, who make up a large enough percentage of voters to decide who moves forward from primary races, experts say. Cruz is among the candidates looking to carry the torch on social issues that win over those voters.
Gay marriage has become a leading issue, and every candidate gets questions such as “Would you attend a gay wedding?” Cruz recently took some heat for appearing at a fundraiser in the home of two gay men.
He said he is opposed to same-sex unions but does not think the federal government should insert itself into any marriage.
“Marriage should be decided at the state level, and indeed, I'd introduce a constitutional amendment to protect the authority of states to define marriage as being the union of one man and one woman,” Cruz said. “Under the Constitution, marriage is a question for the states. It has only been in the past few years that we have seen a bunch of unelected federal judges and the federal government trying to tear down the marriage laws of the 50 states.”
Such a position “is probably in line with most Republican voters who feel there has been too much federal intervention in their lives,” said Chip Felkel, a GOP strategist in South Carolina who is not working for any of the presidential contenders.
Yes, yes, YES!! Go Ted Go!!!
Ted Cruz will win a 42 or 43 state landslide. All the other Republican candidates will lose to Hillary, by a lot.
So just who are these so-called “uninspired conservatives”?
Might they be disenchanted blacks, disenchanted Hispanics, disenchanted LGBTs?
Could be, I guess...but I suspect DISENCHANTED WHITES. Hence my tag line and home page.
Nice to see at least one candidate has taken my advice (well, not quite, but he did conclude the same).
AH!...... raise the DEAD....
Mr. Cruz best reboot and update himself.
In before the predictable Walker guys start attacking.
Oh wait, that’s right, it’s the Cruz Contingent that goes to Walker threads and starts attacking Walker.
See tagline.
“Ted Cruz will win a 42 or 43 state landslide. All the other Republican candidates will lose to Hillary, by a lot.”
The Dems know that, which is why they are trying to do EVERYTHING possible to convince us that Republicans must pander to minorities and others to have a chance at winning...and therefore Cruz cannot win because he won’t pander.
But what the Dems DO NOT tell us is that Republicans did NO PANDERING in 2014 and swept Texas by 20 points. The bunch that won statewide is much more conservative than Rick Perry and his yes-men - but yet 44% of HISPANICS still voted Republican - in a year that the Dems promised to turn Texas blue, and spent tens of millions of dollars in that attempt.
The SINGLE BIGGEST problem Republicans have is not with blacks (they’re hopeless), and not with Hispanics (they’ll come along, at least in sufficient numbers), it’s with Republicans REFUSING TO UNDERSTAND that whites, who are their natural constituents, are still 65% OF THE ELECTORATE and that it’s probably not a bad idea to consider their needs and concerns once in a while.
Obviously Cruz understands that.
“In before the predictable Walker guys start attacking.”
Since you bring him up, Walker won’t get too far this round. He’s a good guy and has done great things in Wisconsin, but he’s fuddled too many things in this primary season to get very far - part of which may certainly be that his day job has been pure torture with the recall elections. But no doubt he’ll be back in future elections and may well end up in the White House. He’s not a bad guy...but it’s going to be next to impossible to see how anyone defeats Cruz, he simply doesn’t seem able to make a mistake.
So just who are these so-called “uninspired conservatives”?
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Many of them are some of your FRiends right here on good ol’ Free Republic. They like to bitch and moan, but refuse to vote because the eventual GOP nominee differs with them on one issue out of twenty.
It is very enlightening.
I have an agenda. I'm working hard and sending money to the Cruz campaign because I know who I want to vote for.
/johnny
Uninspired? Unmotivated?
Is this some kind of Pollyanna sarcasm?
Most are thinking "Betrayed, outrage and contemptible disgust".
Good article. We don’t see too many journalists write favorably about Ted Cruz.
I encourage everyone to read your posting history, especially as shown by other search engines.
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Oh, come on Johnny. Damn it; are we gonna resort to that kind of crap on here. Trying to dig-up dirt on fellow FReepers to discredit any comment that they Post. Let’s not start acting like the low-life, dog-eat-dog scumbag DemocRATS.
If the so-called “consultants” would reach out to the millions of conservatives that don’t vote rather than wasting time worrying about the mythical “moderate voter”, the GOP would be winning Presidential elections instead of cowering to a President with ever decreasing approval numbers.
As nice as that sounds the eventual GOP nominee is going to have their work cut out just to get the minimum of 270 electoral votes to win.
Where did you see the word “moderate” in this article?
/johnny
RE: Your tagline: From my observation, I’m guessing that only 95 percent of the FReepers have the propensity to be “mean-spirited”. But, that only occurs when you disagree with them.
My, my my— lot of negative energy in the Force tonight, 2nd. -:)
Clearly, Sen. Cruz is right... there are a lot of uninspired people. He has his work cut out for him, but he’ll do it.
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