Posted on 12/09/2015 7:48:15 AM PST by Isara
Following his Iowa script, Texas senator reaps support as Carson appears to fade.
GREENVILLE, S.C. - He's locking down pastors in every county, held a rally to celebrate religious liberty and is methodically courting Christian grassroots leaders.
Ted Cruz has taken his evangelicals-focused Iowa playbook to South Carolina - and conservative leaders in the state say that it's starting to work.
"Ted Cruz has done perhaps the best job in the state, frankly," said unaligned South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott of the Texas senator's organization, going on to add, "It's not going to help my friends who are serving with me, but the truth is the truth. He's done a really good job laying the foundation for a really long time."
The Texas senator is ascendant in Iowa, largely on the strength of support from evangelical voters and the deep infrastructure he's built in that community. On Monday he beat Donald Trump in one poll there, and has racked up a number of high-profile endorsements in that state, including from conservative hardliner congressman Steve King.
The South Carolina field looks to be more challenging, as Trump remains strong and Sen. Marco Rubio, boosted by a campaign staff with deep ties to the state, generates enthusiasm among both establishment voters and religious conservatives. Polls from November, the most recent available, had Cruz either third behind Trump and Ben Carson, or fourth behind Trump, Carson and Rubio - and few in the Palmetto State think Carson is doing that well anymore.
Now, there are signs that the same Christian conservatives-focused approach Cruz used to surge in Iowa, largely at Carson's expense, is making him a formidable candidate in South Carolina as well, a state in which 65 percent of Republican primary voters in 2012 identified themselves in exit polls as "born-again or evangelical Christians." Evangelicals are particularly concentrated here in the deeply religious Upstate region.
"It seems the evangelicals are coalescing," said David Lane, an influential unaligned evangelical leader, who hosted Cruz on Monday at a private Pastors and Pews event in Greenville, speaking of Cruz support both in Iowa and South Carolina. "...It does seem Cruz has got the momentum, and 60 days out, that's a good thing to have."
He noted that Cruz is organized in all of South Carolina's 46 counties, just as he is in all of Iowa's 99 (he's organized in every county in the first four voting states).
"He's cooking with gas," Lane added.
Cruz is ramping up his South Carolina efforts, with his campaign's ranks there expected to double, to around a dozen full-time staffers, in coming weeks. On Monday, he visited one of his state's two campaign headquarters, here in Greenville, to join a phone bank, quoting Scripture and praying with one woman on the phone as Vonnie Gleason, a volunteer in her fifties, looked on with tears in her eyes.
"His words are so much from the heart," Gleason said. "He was praying with her like she was his best friend."
That ability to connect with Christians gives Cruz "a real good chance because of all the conservative Christians here," said Linda McCarthy of Greenville, one of the dozens of supporters who crowded into Cruz's campaign office for pictures with the senator and his father, Pastor Rafael Cruz, an important Cruz surrogate in the evangelical community.
That's why Linda Hill, another supporter in attendance, sees a path for Cruz in the state, even as she grudgingly acknowledged that Trump continues to lead for now.
"I just believe in my heart of hearts he's going to come from behind and be the candidate for the Republicans," she said of Cruz. "I pray so. I just can't imagine voting for Trump."
A big part of Cruz's strategy, in South Carolina and nationally, is to emerge as the consensus choice of evangelicals and other conservative Christians. To that end, in South Carolina, Pastor Mike Gonzalez is shepherding an ongoing initiative to recruit a pastor backing Cruz in each county, who will then be tasked with turning out more Christians for Cruz. That echoes an approach Cruz has already taken in Iowa, where efforts are underway to tap a pastor in all 99 counties.
And as he did in Iowa, Cruz hosted a religious liberty rally in Greenville last month, at which he showcased Christians who have faced business and legal troubles for taking stances that they say conflict with their faith, particularly concerning gay marriage.
"As far as getting pastors endorsed, we're lining them up every day," said Gonzalez, the senior pastor at a church in Columbia, S.C. "I would say across the state we probably have 100 or more who have already endorsed. We're looking at some strong leadership, pastors with large churches across the state."
Cruz does not have a monopoly on Christian leaders. Several people interviewed at his headquarters said that at their churches, many are torn between Cruz and Rubio. And GOP veterans say that Rubio would have sufficient appeal with evangelicals to make them a part of the broader coalition he is seeking to build.
"Sen. Cruz is counting on evangelicals showing up in droves on Feb. 20, Sen. Rubio is running a much more [traditional] Republican campaign in South Carolina, looking to be strong in all lanes," said a state party official who is neutral and so requested anonymity in order to speak freely. "Sen. Cruz must win evangelicals to win South Carolina. Sen. Rubio must place."
But so far, the official said, Cruz's strategic efforts to engage the evangelical community appear to be paying off.
"I like Marco Rubio and I would be comfortable with the nominee," said Tony Beam, an influential Christian radio host based in Greenville, who decided to back Cruz following a private meeting in Washington last spring. "The reason I selected Cruz is because Cruz has done more to spotlight issues related to religious liberty."
Cruz is aided in recruitment efforts in the state by LaDonna Ryggs, his state director, who is well-known and well-respected in South Carolina Republican activist circles. Several of his other hires in the state are considered tea party leaders.
Keep the Promise, a cluster of super PACs backing Cruz, also has its biggest field operation in South Carolina, run by Dan Tripp, an operative from the state who was previously Scott Walker's state director here.
"We always viewed Cruz as our biggest competitor because he was so-well organized on the ground, we knew the Scott Walker campaign had to match or beat what Cruz was doing," Tripp said. "...All campaigns have strengths and weaknesses, but I don't see the level of grassroots organization that the Cruz universe has."
Cruz started the process of engaging those leaders, and with the broader effort of building a deeply organized infrastructure in the state, earlier than anyone else, suggested Scott, the unaligned senator who has hosted many of the Republican presidential candidates at town halls and had Cruz at one event on Monday.
"His 'trampoline' is working because he had that strong ground game," Scott said of Cruz's building support. "Rubio's trying to catch up, and Trump's doing a pretty good job of putting it together."
He added that "Marco Rubio has a strong force and Donald Trump is piecing it together pretty quickly."
A Rubio spokesman didn't respond to requests to comment on Cruz and the South Carolina race.
Walter Whetsell, a Republican strategist who was aiding Rick Perry's presidential bid but is now unaligned, immediately ticked off two GOP operatives who had just gone to work with Cruz, when asked about the strength of the Texas senator's campaign in the state, and said that Cruz has "a fairly natural base here." But Whetsell noted that Cruz could also merely be the flavor of the month.
"For Cruz, this sort of natural connection to evangelicals makes him fairly formidable here," Whetsell said. "But it's just because he is going up that wave right now. You can look back in the past, that's a wave that Perry rode for awhile, a wave Huckabee rode for awhile, Santorum was riding it, maybe it's just Cruz's turn."
Cruz is a beneficiary of the last candidate to ride a "wave" of evangelical support - Carson. Polls nationally, and Republicans in the state anecdotally, say that as Carson has stumbled over foreign policy, Cruz has picked off some of his support.
Rubio, however, has been seeking to raise questions about Cruz's national security bona fides, a message that, if it sticks, could take off in South Carolina, a particularly hawkish and pro-military state. Cruz voted for a measure that reined in the National Security Agency's ability to collect bulk telephonic metadata, and has opposed some defense spending measures because of other unrelated provisions included in the bills.
Cruz has been pushing back hard with tough talk on ISIL and stressing a willingness to do whatever is "necessary" to defeat the radical group, as well as seeking to portray his NSA vote as within the conservative mainstream.
"In some cases, he may align a bit too much with Sen. [Rand] Paul on some national security issues," said the state party official of Cruz. "That's really the story over the next three or four weeks, will he pay a price for it?"
But for now, said the official, "momentum with evangelicals is with Sen. Ted Cruz."
That’s a good thing!
If Evangelicals are for Cruz, all I can say is his con job is working. Trial Lawyers and Wall Street are probably all having a good laugh.
IN BEFORE THE POLKA DOTS!
Please click on the pictures at the top of the columns for more details on the ratings of the candidates.
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More at Conservative Review: https://www.conservativereview.com/2016-presidential-candidates
Note: If you don't like the ratings for any reason, please contact Conservative Review's Editor-in-Chief, "The Great One," Mark Levin. But I have
With all due respect . . I don’t believe the results at all. Go Trump 2016
“Trial Lawyers and Wall Street ...”
You’re a tired, old, broken record, Old Guy. We get it: You hate Ted Cruz. Hate hate hate hate the man. Cruz is a fraud, a liar, a demon, a wolf, a sell-out, a jerk, nobody likes him, he’s evil, he’s the great deceiver. And his first name isn’t even “Ted.” Right. We got it.
The truth is, lots of well-informed grass-roots people are pro-Ted Cruz, not just attorneys and businessmen. Lots of people have done a lot of research, and have chosen Ted Cruz because he’s the best man for the job at this time.
I know, you’d rather see a wealthy hamhanded billionaire vulture capitalist become president ...
He’ll zoom all the way up and take South Carolina, right? PLEEEEEEEEEEEEZE!!!
Aiiiiiieee! The polka dots!
Trump's Record on Free-market Issue: (from the Conservative Review)
Trump has a terrible record on free market issues. The only bright spot is the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing, but this glimmer is countermanded by his repeated support for bailing out Wall Street and the auto industry, and increased stimulus spending. Of particular concern is Trump's belief that the government can use eminent domain powers to seize private property in the name of private economic development. This comes as no surprise, given his support for using eminent domain to profit his own company.
Trump supported the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of London, allowing public authorities to seize private land for economic development by private investors; Trump said, “I happen to agree with [the decision] 100 percent.” (National Review) This is no surprise given Trump’s attempt to use eminent domain in his own line of work. (Institute for Justice)
Trump supported President Obama’s 2009 stimulus, saying: “The word stimulus is probably not used in its fullest…you know, certain of the things that were given weren't really stimulus. They were pork, as we call it, or they were gifts to certain people. But overall, I think he's [President Obama] doing very well. You do need stimulus and you do have to keep the banks alive.” (CNN)
Trump supported TARP, saying, "You had to do something to shore up the banks, because ... you would have had a run on every bank." (CNN)
Trump supported the 2008 auto bailout, saying, “I think the government should stand behind them 100 percent. You cannot lose the auto companies. They’re great. They make wonderful products.” He also said that the federal government could “easily save the companies.” (Daily Caller)
Trump criticized the Federal Reserve’s intervention in the debt market, saying quantitative easing creates “phony numbers” that mislead the marketplace and “will not ultimately benefit the economy. The dollar will go down in value and inflation will start rearing its ugly head.” (CNBC)
Donald Trump has a history of using eminent domain to complete business deals. Multiple times Trump has supported the use of government agencies to take possession of homes and businesses for use in his private business plans. Eminent domain seizures are reserved only for public use of property rather than abuse by the government taking property from one individual and giving to another. (Washington Post)
Donald Trump has sought and received crony capitalist tax breaks for his commercial properties in New York. These tax breaks, and even an abatement, force the property taxes of other property owners to rise at the expense of the connected. Special treatment for one business or industry over another with the tax code conflicts with free market principles. (National Review)
In 2009, Trump supported Barack Obama's call for limits on the pay of executives. (CNN)
Bulls in china shops are sometimes very useful. There is a TIME for everything and the bible tells us so.
What a shock!
“He’s locking down pastors in every county”
Why the hell is this a priority? These people couldn’t keep Graham out of the Senate, but we keep seeing them as some spectacular voting bloc.
IN the meantime, Cruz has comfortably not-evolved. In anything, it seems... trouble is, yesteryear’s policies don’t always address today’s needs very well.
My guess is leverage over church congregations, though again the question of why this didn’t do anything about Graham comes up. Maybe because he and Billy Graham share the same name and they really don’t care to learn a lot about the guy, it is a good ole boy system even when the good ole boys turn bad? (Just surmising, might be quite wrong here.)
Holy crap Batman! This guy is obviously off his meds.
He attacks a conservative really well - I wonder if he actually supports any conservatives...or conservative entities.
Now for a short public service announcement to all on FR:
We need to ensure we don't get another Obama-like America Hater as the next President.
The best way to ensure that is to actively support a candidate as the next President.
I prefer Cruz and my money goes to his campaign, hence the Cruz link. If you like someone else, donate to him/her (find your own link to do it) and if you use FR and don't donate, then please don't complain about the welfare leeches or those who have Obama Phones because, functionally, you are no different than any other FReeloader
PS - If you are one of those who cannot afford even a small donation to FR or a candidate, God Bless and happy FReeping!.....
GO CRUZ!! Keep it up Trump!!
Cruz really needs to stump for those donations. Trump is getting mongo voluntarism. So we understand...
I think we erred the moment we tried to freeze and polarize everything into “conservative” and “liberal” camps. That’s like Windows with 16 colors. There are powerful tendencies, yes. There aren’t infallible rules, no. In particular with respect to the “trumpeted” godliness side of conservatism, God is a master of techniques that look a lot like liberalism except it’s in the private sphere.
I understand what you say but I don't require a conservative to jump through hoops before I contribute - if he ends up as out choice, he will have over a $Billion in Hillary's war chest to fight against. He's been building his campaign and ground game in a straightforward and steady mode - I'd guess we'll get more stumping as the current Caucuses head for Primaries - he's biding his time and making his plans. I believe Cruz is the real deal and consider his stated devotion to Christ as a very big bonus but not a full-bore prerequisite - I's accept a "lukewarm" Christian with his attributes over most of what we've had to deal with.
Polka dots?
And all this time I thought it was a new version of Twister.
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