Posted on 08/25/2015 8:13:04 PM PDT by Isara
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addresses the media in Tuscaloosa. Cruz is set to give the keynote speech at the Tuscaloosa County Republican Party's Lincoln-Reagan Dinner. (Howard Koplowitz)
"Welcome to my office," Ted Cruz says to a reporter as he motions to a folding chair seated opposite him in the bowels of Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. The Republican senator from Texas and 2016 presidential candidate has a few minutes to spare for an interview before giving the keynote address at the Tuscaloosa County Republican Party's Lincoln-Reagan Dinner.
The office Cruz hopes to occupy after November 2016 is more spacious and oval than the crowded hallway in the stadium the Crimson Tide call home. To get from here to there, Cruz is in part banking on Alabama, a state he has visited twice in the last month that is part of the crucial "SEC Primary" comprised of key southern states.
Cruz has garnered a reputation as an uncompromising firebrand who refused to budge during the debt ceiling and the government shutdown. The senator said his conservative bone fides will play well in Alabama, which is among the reddest states in the country.
"I think primary voters in Alabama, in the South and across the country are looking for a conservative they can trust," Cruz said during an interview Tuesday night with AL.com. "They're tired of campaign conservatives who talk a good game on the stump but don't walk the walk. And the reason our campaign is enjoying such tremendous support in Alabama is that I have the strongest conservative record of any candidate running."
On what has become a major campaign issue among the 2016 Republican field – illegal immigration – Cruz has been quick to tout his connection to U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who he teamed up with to derail the Gang of Eight's immigration reform bill in 2013.
Cruz downplayed the significance of Sessions appearing with his rival, real estate mogul Donald Trump, when Trump addressed some 20,000 people at Ladd-Peebles Stadium last week for a rousing rally in Mobile. Sessions, who helped craft the Trump campaign's immigration platform, briefly donned a white cap bearing Trump's slogan – "Make America Great Again" --, although he didn't give an official endorsement of Trump. It was no bother to Cruz.
"It's not surprising that Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump and I all agree on many of the same underlying elements of how to secure the border and stop illegal immigration," Cruz said, which includes doing away with birthright citizenship for those born to parents illegally in the country. "Indeed, many of the provisions are virtually identical to legislation I have previously authored and introduced in the Senate. Good ideas work and I welcome many as many candidates as possible and I embrace sound policy to finally, finally, finally secure the border."
Cruz said his campaign has enjoyed support from a cross-section of the Republican electorate – "conservatives, evangelicals, libertarians, young, people, Hispanics, women, Reagan Democrats," according to the senator – and said his appeal in the Yellowhammer State is due to willingness to buck the Republican establishment.
"If you think everything in Washington is going great, that we need to keep going in the same direction, just fiddle around the edges, then I'm not your guy," he said. "However, if you think Washington is fundamentally broken, that we have career politicians in both parties who get in bed with lobbyists and special interests and grow and grow and grow government and that we need to bring power out of Washington and back to the people, then that is what this campaign is about."
I am actually looking for a conservative that can and will achieve practical, tangible, effective results and quickly.
Whether or not I believe someone is or is not a conservative on this or that issue really doesn’t matter, because so far nothing conservative has really ever been achieved, or brought into practice or anything at all for that matter.
Government is never reduced. No one is ever held accountable for anything, regardless of how people we have that say they are pro-life, we slaughter babies and sell the pieces all day every day, gay marriage is legal, we are being invaded and overrun by illegal aliens, islam is on the march everywhere including here, communism and homosexuality are being taught to children...
I could go on forever, but there is really no point.
What I want to know from a president that i vote for is WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO GET DONE, AND HOW LONG IS IT GOING TO TAKE YOU, AND ARE YOU WILLING TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO ACHIEVE IT, BECAUSE AMERICA IS OUT OF TIME.
Those are some excellent steps, I will say.
Although I am troubled that any steps against illegal immigration are not mentioned.
And at this point I will also say that I am for steps being taken to stem legal immigration, or at least the replacing of American workers with foreign workers.
Our government needs to work for us.
I do not care what the rest of the world wants to be perfectly honest.
Minutia: Ted Cruz’s Momma was a Math graduate(Rice I think) and computer programmer IN THE 50’s... no less.
I just wanted to add that I just saw Cruz on Megyn Kelly, and I liked his response to her deport question, but I am looking for a stronger response on that.
We reverse this illegal alien invasion. That’s it, that’s all.
I’m not concerned with hurt feelings. It ends now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.