True "independents" are capable of reasoning between alternatives. The key is offering them persuasive reasons for your position.
William Flax
During high school, Cruz participated in a Houston-based group called the Free Market Education Foundation where Cruz learned about free-market economic philosophers such as Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Frédéric Bastiat and Ludwig von Mises.[26] The program was run by Rolland Storey and Cruz entered the program at the age of 13.[24]
Cruz graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy[33] from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1992.[6][5] While at Princeton, he competed for the American Whig-Cliosophic Society’s Debate Panel and won the top speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debating Championship.[34] In 1992, he was named U.S. National Speaker of the Year and Team of the Year (with his debate partner, David Panton).[34] Cruz was also a semi-finalist at the 1995 World Universities Debating Championship, making him Princeton’s highest-ranked debater at the championship.[35][36] Princeton’s debate team later named their annual novice championship after Cruz.[35]
Cruz’s senior thesis on the separation of powers, titled “Clipping the Wings of Angels,” draws its inspiration from a passage attributed to President James Madison: “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” Cruz argued that the drafters of the Constitution intended to protect the rights of their constituents, and the last two items in the Bill of Rights offered an explicit stop against an all-powerful state. Cruz wrote: “They simply do so from different directions. The Tenth stops new powers, and the Ninth fortifies all other rights, or non-powers.”[31][37]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz