Cruz campaign puts family out front

Politico ^ | 11/28/15 | Katie Glueck

[Isara]

In the Texas senator's bid for the White House, his father and wife are the tip of the spear.

To one degree or another, every candidate running for president has enlisted their family in their effort. But none have gone so far as Ted Cruz, whose surging campaign has placed his wife Heidi and father Rafael at the tip of the spear, leading fundraising and organizing efforts as if they were paid staffers.

Neither has a formal title, but as the Texas senator continues to roll out endorsements and assemble a growing network of supporters in the early states and across the South in anticipation of the March 1 primaries, the influence of his wife, on leave from her position as an executive at Goldman Sachs, and his father, a pastor who is a fixture on the evangelical speaking circuit, is becoming stamped across his campaign.

Rafael Cruz has been central to his son's evangelical outreach efforts for months. For many Christian conservatives, the first introduction to the Cruz family was through Rafael, who served as a key bridge between religious leaders and the campaign. Last summer he did a multi-city swing through Iowa churches where he was accompanied by the Cruz campaign's Iowa state director and preached about the importance of getting Christians to vote. His son is rarely the subject of his sermons - but it's implied.

For most of the campaign, Heidi Cruz focused almost singularly on fundraising. But after largely playing a behind the scenes role, she has started ratcheting up her public presence in recent weeks. She joined Twitter this month and has already done solo swings through states including Alabama and Georgia, maintaining a pace that sometimes rivals her husband's, with as many as three stops a day. She has a heavy travel schedule planned through the end of the year.

Just as important, Heidi Cruz has joined Rafael Cruz in quietly courting lawmakers, according to several legislators who are backing Cruz, sometimes forming a one-two Cruz family punch before the senator gets involved.

Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent Iowa social conservative whose Family Leader organization hosted a presidential forum earlier this month, has met at various times with Rafael, Heidi and Ted Cruz as he weighs an endorsement.

"Cruz definitely has made this a family affair," he said, ticking through all the spouses of candidates he hasn't met.

Like other candidates' wives, Heidi Cruz's public mission is, in part, to soften the edges of her husband, who is reviled by many of his Senate colleagues. But her actual portfolio is much broader, encompassing fundraising, strategy and tactics.

The Cruzes met while working on George W. Bush's campaign - and Heidi Cruz held several roles in the Bush administration - so she is as comfortable talking strategy with donors and GOP officials as she is in the more traditional political spousal role of opening up about family life and humanizing her husband.

"She's very sharp in her own right, very impressive," said South Carolina State Rep. Wendy Nanney, who got a call from Heidi Cruz during which the two discussed the Texas senator's record as well as Nanney's own work challenging abortion rights. "It was a great conversation with her, I was very comfortable, and that led into a meeting with him, [and my] being very comfortable and able to talk very openly."

Nanney is now one of Cruz's South Carolina co-chairs.

"Ted and Heidi are the closest Republican equivalent of the political powerhouse couple Bill and Hillary Clinton," said Cruz campaign chair Chad Sweet. "Their marriage was forged in the heat of a presidential campaign and their partnership in American politics has not stopped since. Each is a formidable politico in their own right."

Now, through social media and radio hits, women's lunches and phone calls to key activists, Heidi Cruz is intensifying her public efforts to shore up support for her husband, a mandate that includes showcasing a gentler side to a candidate who is rising in the polls but is sometimes stiff while working a crowd, and has drawn criticism from top Republicans ranging from John Boehner to George W. Bush.

"This election is going to come down to trust," she said in a recent interview with POLITICO. "If you are looking to trust someone, you need to know them, and knowing them is multidimensional...The news media loves to portray Ted as such a serious person, the media tells you he doesn't connect, and when I tell you these things about how well he connects not only with voters but with family, I think it goes against that narrative."

She talks about her husband's fondness for Broadway musicals and his inside jokes with their two young daughters, and in front of women's groups has stressed that he has compassion for single mothers, in part because that was his half-sister's experience.

"I want to show people that Ted can unite this party, that Ted is speaking to common-sense principles that bring us all together," Cruz said. "I also want to show this country that he is incredibly thoughtful, both professionally and personally. This is a man who's never missed a date night, who's never missed a birthday, who loves his girls so much like every father does in this country.

"Not all the public know that yet, and the media loves to paint him as a fiery, outspoken advocate for the extreme right that can never win," continued Cruz, vowing to show that that's not the full picture.

Steve Deace, an influential conservative Iowa radio host who is backing Cruz, had several meetings with the senator, his wife and his father. Deace's wife also had lunch with Heidi Cruz.

"They each have God-given roles and just complement each other very well," said Deace, calling them a "model contemporary Christian couple."

"Ted's got the killer instinct when it comes to pursuing principles," he said. "Heidi's got the killer instinct when it comes to gathering resources to run a successful campaign."

Yet Deace's first connection to the Cruz family was through Rafael Cruz, whom he met in Iowa evangelical circles. That's not an uncommon experience: Eric Woolson, who worked on Christian conservative outreach for Scott Walker in Iowa before the Wisconsin governor dropped out, told POLITICO recently said that he was constantly running up against pastors who were glowing about "how impressed they were with Sen. Cruz's dad, how much work he'd done."

[caww]

Cruz fought the Senate on both sides of the aisle....and is still fighting them during his campaighn.......so it’s not accurate saying Cruz as a Senator is a step down....he went there to make a difference and then some...and he’s done just that .....

[Theodore R.]

Who hosted fundraisers for Corey Booker and why? How does Chelsea C. M. know the Cruzes?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Look, I think Cruz is okay. He’s not likely to make any huge missteps, doesn’t have any outrageous agenda to push. What America needs most is a respite from all the body blows it has been getting so it can collect itself and resume a march of real progress (not “progressive” progress). Trump and Cruz could both serve well to that end.

What we don’t need is an “all knees bow to the president” attitude. I kind of bristle at the notion. We need a president who will leave room for all knees to bow to God.

[caww]

As Cruz states....” I spent 5 1/2 years as the solicitor general of Texas, the chief lawyer for Texas in front of the U.S. Supreme Court..... I supervised and led every year before the state of Texas in a 4,000 agency with over 700 lawyers. “

[HiTech RedNeck]

As far as function is concerned, I mean... again like that software engineer. He might have carried on the best taxi service in town, might have shown all the other taxi drivers how it’s done, still it is a taxi service.

The Senate might benefit temporarily from a political pusher in it. But America needs more. What is it that got the Senate in need of having the political pusher?

[erod]

Please refer to post #16, I was referring to Trump’s daughter.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Fine, lawyers lawyers lawyers.

Cue the lawyer jokes?

There can be a problem with tunnel visionism.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Also questions have swirled recently over the state of Texas’ state legal affairs. There is intrigue in the system. What did Cruz know and when did he know it, is going to be a matter that will likely come up.

[CatherineofAragon]

“”All this for a damn flag”

[CatherineofAragon]

Money just can’t buy taste. And you can’t de-Wookify a Sasquatch.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well of course it was for more than the “damn flag” — as if suddenly the rules became Marquis of Queensbury. It was for taking and keeping the place by utter force.

Whoever can do that, has what it takes to win.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Oh good grief even I know a meow when I hear it.

Michelle probably has more class than Barack.

[CatherineofAragon]

Your defense of Michelle Obama is noted.

[Carthego delenda est]

I look at the picture of the Cruz family, and there’s no doubt they are genuine and filled with love. I saw a picture of the Rubio family at a campaign stop, and they looked like props in a movie set. Plastic, disbelief in what they were doing.

Go Cruz!!!
Go Trump!!!

[caww]

Well I'm sure, if it's as you state, Cruz will handle it....Frankly when you've followed him as long as I have you know when did he know, and what did he know .....and if or not he handled anything that warranted attention...many things do not.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Oh my, someone might actually be a trifle less than completely bad. (If she’s less bad than Barack, that must be the case.) What are we going to do with that truthful observation? We are going to tar the one who makes it, of course. Because it does not fit with OUR brand of P.C.

This is why I like Trump. He won’t pump P.C. no matter who benefits. He might be wrong about some things but there never is a doubt that truth is what he is after.

[Gratia]

-— The media will write brutal narratives about any Republican nominated and especially Donald Trump. -—

Before I respond, I just want to say how much I respect Cruz supporters and Cruz himself.

Cruz gave an interview with Katy Couric I downloaded because his answers made me literally euphoric, they were so good. Another is his speech calling McConnell a liar; I have watched that in its entirety three times because it so brilliantly done, really a masterpiece. And the way he spontaneously handled those Code Pink protestors, defeating them with a combination of superior intellect and superior character, is something I have never witnessed in nay other situation.

But to address your point and to return to my original point: yes, the leftist media will run a narrative against everybody, no doubt. Whoever runs against Hillary, will be the target of the dreary but highly effective tactics which have worked only too well (you know what they are).

The question is, which candidate is best able to defeat the massive cultural advantage the left has in this regard.

Cruz no doubt would be far better than Romney or McCain, because Cruz sees perfectly what he will be facing, and those guys were clueless and spineless.

To defeat the media (I am convinced), it will be necessary to put Hillary on the defensive with a relentless, daily, vicious, primal campaign of personal destruction: she is a liar; she treats people like garbage; she has accomplished nothing, ever; she is an incompetent; she is a co-rapist and co-harasser; and she is a grifter and thief who has constructed a criminal enterprise in the Clinton Foundation.

I simply do not see Cruz being in a position to do this. Part of this is his wife’s connection to Goldman Sachs and CFR, and part is the fact that Cruz has accepted millions of dollars from several individuals.

Those contributors are probably wonderful people, I assume they are. But they compromise Cruz because every single human being has interest in life, and the left will brilliantly twist those interests into unanswerable attacks. An oil industry connection, for interest, will be twisted in a variety of ways to make it look like Cruz is a puppet for despoilers of the Earth, etc etc. You know exactly how they do it.

I hate it, but it is simply the type of nightmare reality conservatives have to acknowledge.

Sorry for the long post. I just want you to know I take your opinion seriously, even if I have a different opinion.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I get the point by contrast... Trump being closer to self-kept (if not self-made) will need to worry less about what china shops he becomes a bull into.

A Trump-Cruz team could be quite hopeful, because Trump would provide the covering fire that Cruz might not be able to bring himself to produce.

[Isara]

Trump's Record on Civil-liberty Issue: (from the Conservative Review)

"Trump has an inconsistent record when it comes to civil liberties. He supported the NSA mass surveillance program but did not weigh in on the recently passed reforms. Overall, he has avoided commenting on religious freedom, but says he would be an advocate for Christians. Trump supports an individual’s right to make unlimited campaign contributions, but advocates for an end to soft money in politics. Most concerning is Trump’s belief that the government can use eminent domain powers to seize private property for economic benefit for others."

Trump supports the NSA’s metadata collection program, saying, “I support legislation which allows the NSA to hold the bulk metadata. For oversight, I propose that a court, which is available any time on any day, is created to issue individual rulings on when this metadata can be accessed.” This position was identical to the NSA’s mass surveillance program before being reformed by the USA Freedom Act. (Newsweek) 

Trump has avoided commenting on religious freedom since Indiana passed its Religious Freedom and Restoration Act into law. Instead, he has said that he will be the “greatest representative of the Christians they've had in a long time” if elected president. (Christian Today) (Breitbart)  

Trump believes political soft money should be banned, while individuals should be allowed to make unlimited contributions. "If I were drawing a political cartoon to represent the situation, it would include a very large guy with a huge bag of money. On that bag would be written one word: soft. Soft money is the bane of the current system and we need to get rid of it." (The America We Deserve) 

Trump supported the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, giving public authorities the right to seize private land for economic development by private investors. Trump said, “I happen to agree with [the decision] 100 percent.” (National Review)

Trump highlighted his support for prosecuting "hate crimes" against homosexuals in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve. “Hate Crime” is a term used to extend special protections for a specific classes and in essence elevates the importance of these classes above others. For example, murder of homosexual or heterosexual should be viewed equally under the law and punished equally. Creating special classes is a liberal tactic used to divide and segment society.(Google Books)

Trump said that Kim Davis should not have been jailed for refusing to issue gay marriage licenses. He also said that she should allow her deputy clerks to do so, but also said that 30 miles away you can get a license so people should do that. He added, "The decision's been made, and that is the law of the land." (CNN)

Much like his stance on eminent domain, Donald Trump has shown a troubling tendency to want to use the power of government to stifle political speech. When the conservative Club for Growth released an advertisement regarding Trump's changing positions on taxation, Trump responded with a legal letter calling for them to cease and desist the advertisements. A chilling move towards the silencing of political speech. (Politico)

Donald Trump attacked SuperPACs (political action committees) in the third Republican debate. By suggesting they should be outlawed he came out against the First Amendment protection of speech, and echoed progressive talking points. (Time)

[HiTech RedNeck]

Just curious how completely you and your myrmidons follow the opposite of things you hate about Trump.