Posted on 09/04/2015 12:47:34 PM PDT by Isara
FORT WORTH — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz brought an enthusiastic crowd of about 2,000 supporters to their feet Thursday at the Stockyards with his recitation of how he would set about undoing President Barack Obama’s legacy on a very busy first day in the White House.
The crowd never sat down.
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| Republican presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, poses for photos after his speech at the Fort Worth Stockyards on Thursday |
“That’s day one,” Cruz said. “There are 365 days in a year, four years in a presidential term, four years in a second term. At the end of the eighth year, there are going to be a lot of newspaper reporters and journalists and editors to check themselves into therapy.”
Presenting his candidacy as a crusade to save America as “the last, best hope for mankind,” Cruz closed his remarks with the declaration, “We are not prepared to go quietly into the night.”
The crowd roared its approval, and then many surged toward the candidate, surrounding him as, one by one, family unit by family unit, he shook hands, signed books and had photos taken.
For Cruz, it was an exhilarating launch to a day of campaigning for president in his home state that would take him to an afternoon Cruz Country Rally in Tyler and a Kingwood Tea Party Freedom Rally in the evening.
Cruz is the man to beat in the March 1 Texas primary, which has the second-largest cache of delegates, behind only California.
The Texas primary is relatively early in the process, coming on the heels of South Carolina’s primary — the fourth contest after the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
“I think Ted Cruz is going to win Texas,” said state Rep. Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving, a tea party legislator who opened Thursday’s rally and who fashions himself a lawmaker in Cruz’s uncompromisingly conservative mold. “I think he is going to win in Iowa.”
The swift dominance of Donald Trump in the GOP race has, for the time being, overshadowed Cruz’s capacity to be the most provocative tribune of discontent.
But Cruz has sought from the start to make Trump an ally, not an adversary, and Cruz and Trump — at Cruz’s invitation — will lead what promises to be a huge rally against the Iran nuclear agreement outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, the day before the Senate votes on it.
Mike Jones, a Glen Rose veterinarian who ran unsuccessfully for state representative and who has started a grass-roots committee supporting Cruz’s presidential campaign in Texas, said the New York mogul had successfully unleashed a national discussion on such issues as immigration. In the long run, it is a space that Cruz will more skillfully fill after voters learn that Trump is neither truly a Republican nor a conservative, he said.
“This is the candidate to get enthusiastic about,” an invigorated Jones said after Cruz spoke.
For Cruz, the Texas primary is a bit of an ace in the hole.
It’s a huge and expensive state to campaign in, and Cruz has an on-the-ground political army he built for his Senate campaign and has nurtured ever since.
As of this week, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email, “We do not have a Texas operation.”
“I think when Donald Trump comes to Texas, he is going to find that Ted Cruz has a pretty good beachhead here,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. “A significant share of the people that are attracted to Donald Trump for his iconoclastic approach to campaigning and politics are already predisposed toward Ted Cruz.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who was campaigning in Texas this week and who in February was running neck-and-neck with Cruz in the UT/Texas Tribune poll, has seen his fortunes wilt since Trump’s entry.
“Scott Walker is rapidly becoming, much to his chagrin, a cautionary tale of peaking too soon and getting caught up in the crosscurrents of Trump’s rise and the media storm around Trump,” Henson said.
But, Henson said, “I do not think that Donald Trump is hurting Ted Cruz in Texas. Trump is talking about the failure of government, of the establishment, this notion of American decline. This is all consistent with what Cruz wants this primary to be about. If those are the terms of the political discussion, Ted Cruz is fine with that.”
“People are looking for a fighter; they want someone storming the temple, knocking over the money-changers’ tables,” said Brendan Steinhauser, an Austin-based Republican political consultant who played a formative role in creating the national tea party movement.
In the end, Steinhauser thinks most conservative voters will pass on Trump: “I think they are going to settle on a legitimate contender like a Cruz, a Rubio, a Walker.”
And, Cruz said at Thursday’s rally, “I’ll tell you the difference between me and the other fine candidates on that debate stage. With me, when I tell you I’m going to do something, I’m going to do exactly what I say.”
Man o man, I sure hope this guy can pull it off. I’ll vote Trump if that’s the only way to go, but Trump is always about Donald. Cruz is the man.
Go, Cruz, GO!!
““People are looking for a fighter; they want someone storming the temple, knocking over the money-changers’ tables,” said Brendan Steinhauser...”
That’s exactly what I want to see!
Of course they are enthusiastic - he is their Senator.
Gooood, all good!
I’m on the fence between Trump or Cruz. Actually I want them both.
“I think when Donald Trump comes to Texas, he is going to find that Ted Cruz has a pretty good beachhead here,” said Jim Henson,Don't count your chickens before they hatch Jim.
Now THIS is a conservative.
State Rep. Rinaldi, an FB friend
America needs Cruz. This man is a right thinking politician. But I fear he doesn't have the name recognition or national crowd pleasing appeal.
I was living in kommiefornia when arnie the rino ran for gov. I couldn't stand the guy cause I knew how liberal he really is. But he had name appeal. Star status. He got the election when there was somebody else, Tom McClintock, that we really needed.
I'll vote for Trump if it's between him and another Bush or Clinton. But don't be surprised if Donald doesn't meet your expectations. He'll always do what best for Donald. He's consistent that way.
The more I'm finding out about Cruz, the more I'm thinking that, too. There are a few other candidates I'd be OK with, but Cruz really stands out.
Read my post directly below yours.
GO TED!!
btt
HOORAY Cruz
He’s better than we deserve. God help us.
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