Posted on 08/24/2015 5:37:52 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Ted Cruz got a big boost in Iowa recently when the influential social conservative activist and radio host Steve Deace endorsed him.
To call it a sought-after endorsement would be an understatement. Deace says prospective 2016 GOP campaigns began contacting him well before the 2012 election. (All just assumed that Mitt Romney was going to lose.) The recruitment efforts picked up in 2013 and 2014.
When few people were paying any attention to the still-forming Republican race, Deace was hard at work.
“For me, this vetting process has been going on for a couple of years,” he says. “In our world, as activists on the ground, it’s actually kind of late in the game. You want to be winning the activist caucus now so you can win the actual caucus later.”
Now Cruz has won the Deace Caucus. Deace explains that he was looking for a candidate who can win the support of social conservatives like himself, and also of business-oriented establishment conservatives as well.
“We need a candidate who can walk through the front door of the American Family Association and Americans for Prosperity and, while not changing who they are, or pandering, win a standing ovation from both,” Deace said. “I don’t know of another candidate besides Cruz that we can say that about.”
Other campaigns would disagree, of course, but the endorsement comes on top of a good run by Cruz lately. The Texas senator really connected with conservatives during the earliest days of his campaign; for a while in April, Cruz was in third place in the GOP race, according to the RealClearPolitics average of national polls. By July, he had fallen to eighth. Now, Cruz has moved up a couple of spots and seems headed higher.
Part of it was a well-received performance at the Aug. 6 Republican debate. The interesting thing about that is that Cruz spoke for less time, and uttered fewer words, than any of the other candidates except Rand Paul. “Man of few words” is not a phrase normally associated with Ted Cruz. But when he opened his mouth, people listened.
“You can credit much of his steady gain in the polls to his strong performance in the debate, where many of the 24 million Americans watching got their first extended look at him,” said a Cruz campaign aide.
Team Cruz saw a significant increase in support after the showdown. Cruz did a 21-stop post-debate bus tour in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma, and saw growing audiences in each.
“He was drawing crowds of up to 2,500,” said another aide. “We saw our RSVPs at every event go up by no less than 50 percent after the debate.”
But Cruz aides believe his recent uptick is about more than the debate. Cruz seems to be the Republican most benefiting from taking on other Republicans — not so much his GOP rivals in the presidential race but the party leadership in Washington. At the recent RedState Gathering of conservatives in Atlanta, Cruz won a huge ovation when he was asked what it means to lead from behind. “Well, sure,” Cruz replied. “Republican congressional leadership does it every day.”
All the things that have made many Republicans in Washington dislike Cruz just make a certain type of GOP voter like him even more. In much the way that primary voters admire Scott Walker for standing up and taking on the unions, they admire Cruz for standing up and taking on Mitch McConnell and John Boehner.
“He should make a commercial that is a montage of people hating him — McConnell, Boehner, the surrender caucus,” Deace said. “He would close with, ‘The same people you hate, hate me. See you in February.’” For a significant part of the GOP base, Cruz has the right enemies.
In a recent Fox News poll — the one in which Cruz jumped up to third place after the debate, ahead of Jeb Bush — Cruz did better with voters under 45 years old than any Republican candidate except Donald Trump. He’s got room to grow. No one knows how long his recent rise will last, but it appears that Cruz’s work is finally making a difference.
ME TOO
It’s Cruz all the way for me but, man, does Trump have a set on him!!! I just love his illegal immigration theme that “we either have a country or we don’t”, and that we have to build the fence and deport illegals and start over with legal immigration.
What utter nonsense. Cruz is brilliant on his feet and can answer challenges with facts and logic. Check out this example of his ability to swat a leftist gnat aside with style and courage of his convictions:
Ellen Page Confronts Ted Cruz on Gay Rights at Iowa State Fair
He picks her apart without even putting down the pork patty. If he was Trump, for example, he would have scowled, called her "a loser", and made some comment about her gender.
Cruz is ten times the "fighter" than anybody else on the GOP stage.
I swear, some of you people have absolutely no idea what transpires in this nation politically.
No, the media have not decided that Cruz can be their new McCain. SMH.
“Nearly 32 percent of Republicans surveyed online said they backed Trump, up from 24 percent a week earlier, the opinion poll found. Trump had nearly double the support of his closest competitor, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who got 16 percent. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was third at 8 percent.”
Think of the debate with Cruz vs Trump. LOL
Five years ago, Donald Trump was the middle of a two-year stretch as a registered Republican. For the eight years prior to 2009, he was a Democrat. After that, through the 2012 Presidential election, he was an independent.
Facts don't support Trump.
Write this down: There is not going to be another black person on a national ticket in this country for at least a generation and if somehow it were to happen, that ticket would lose, badly.
Well that is an interesting takeaway from a post that had to do with Ted Cruz’s current standing (or lack thereof) in a recent national poll.
BTTT.
What did you think of my statement?
I listened to the discussion and comparing his replies to the hour I listened to Trump in Louisiana, I could listen to Cruz for many hours and not have to force myself to listen.
You could not be more wrong about Cruz being a good candidate. Remember he ran for Senate as a virtual unknown except for a few people in Texas.
The Republican party supported the much more household name guy (whose named I can’t even remember) ... Gov. Perry endorsed the other guy. I voted for the other guy (Soooo sorry)
And Cruz .. well, he cruised to a landslide victory all because he is such a likable candidate and good campaigner.
He’s not flashy but he lasts longer.
They've been trying or four years now...and haven't taken so much as a bite. Instead, Cruz looks very well fed.
Er, when did you start paying attention...???
I think you’re wrong about that. He got much of his money from small donations. He does have a couple of big donors but I don’t think he will stray from his principles.
Trump the media darling? What media, pray tell. They have to cover him because of who he is but mostly they’re hoping he trips up and they would love to be the ones who do it.
Ambivalence.
Watch and see. I’ve taken part in several presidential campaigns.
As have I.
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