Posted on 03/27/2015 9:49:09 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) launched his U.S. Senate bid, he was the preferred choice of a mere 3 percent of Texas Republican primary voters in a field of a half-dozen credible candidates. Chief among his rivals was a powerful three-term lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst, who possessed a net worth of $200 million, enjoyed the near-unanimous support of the Texas GOP establishment and began the 2012 election cycle with a commanding lead in the polls. A year-and-a-half later, Cruz soundly defeated Dewhurst in a primary runoff with 57 percent of the vote and was on his way to the U.S. Senate.
One thing 2012 taught us in Texas is that one should never underestimate Ted Cruz. But, that said, there are several noteworthy differences between the dynamics of Cruz's 2012 Senate and 2016 presidential campaigns.
In the 2012 U.S. Senate contest, Dewhurst pursued a "Rose Garden strategy" that left the door wide open for Cruz to obtain the support of a lion's share of the influential Tea Party and social conservative activists who play an outsized role in Texas's low turnout Republican primaries (e.g., 6 percent of the voting-age population cast a ballot in the 2012 runoff). In his current presidential run, Cruz will face fierce competition for the movement conservative and social conservative vote from a plethora of talented and highly motivated candidates.
Cruz had more than 18 months between his campaign launch in January 2011 and the July 2012 runoff to attend hundreds of events hosted by conservative groups throughout the state. While it may be possible for Cruz to partially replicate this grassroots strategy in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada (combined, their population is less than half of the Lone Star State's), such an approach will not be feasible in the subsequent 50-plus contests.
William F. Buckley's "Buckley Rule" states Republicans should nominate the most conservative candidate available as long as he or she is viable/electable. In Texas, Republican candidates have won 121-straight statewide elections, with the last GOP defeat occurring more than 20 years ago, in 1994. Today, whomever the Texas GOP nominates for statewide office is by definition electable. General election viability was therefore not even a remote concern for Texas Republican primary voters in 2012. It will, however, be a concern for many of the nation's Republican presidential primary and caucus voters in 2016. As part of their voting decision, they will take into account how the different Republican nominees are likely to fare in pivotal battleground states such as Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado and Iowa, where the winner of the November 2016 presidential election will be decided. These voters are well aware that it's tough to imagine a scenario where, for instance, the Republican candidate loses in Florida and Ohio but still manages to garner a majority in the Electoral College.
Cruz would not be running for president if he did not see a path to victory, however long and narrow it may be. Certainly back in 2011, Cruz was one of the few who could envision such a path, and, with the assistance of a skilled and innovative campaign team, followed it to perfection over 18 arduous months. But today, once again Cruz finds himself labeled a long shot, and we'll have to wait about a year or so to know if the pundits who once again discount his prospects are once again wrong.
However, under the most likely scenario — where Cruz fails to capture the GOP nomination — he should still emerge from the 2016 campaign more powerful and influential then ever. Cruz excels on the stump and will be the most skilled debater in the Republican debates and other candidate forums that will take place over the next year. Furthermore, the primary campaign will provide Cruz with an ideal venue to, like a big-tent Texas revival evangelist from the past century, preach his gospel of constitutional conservatism and recruit new converts to his cause from across the nation.
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Jones is the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy's fellow in political science, the Joseph D. Jamail chair in Latin American studies and the chair of the Department of Political Science at Rice University.
Sorry I can’t give attribution on this statement, it was in some article I was reading earlier this morning:
Those who demand to know what major policies Ted Cruz has advanced to passage will find few things. But those who ask what has Ted Cruz stopped that would harm Americans or their wallets will find many things.
When the White House decided to suspend flights into Israel, Cruz held up a presidential appointment. Flights resumed quickly. When Republicans and Democrats were working together to drive up the national debt, Cruz rallied other House and Senate conservatives to get the plan scaled backed.
Cruz has not won every fight. The Republican establishment hates him almost as much as the establishment hates the Republican base. They blame Ted Cruz for a government shutdown when, essentially, that shutdown exposed the Republican leadership in Washington as a bunch of hucksters fundraising on the desires of its voters only to ignore those desires once in power. These same leaders were almost gleeful at the thought that they could blame Ted Cruz for the GOP not winning the Senate in 2014. Then they did win and have behaved like the dog that caught the car ever since.
The measure of a conservative in Washington, who went to “make DC listen” as Cruz’s twitter hashtag suggests, cannot be “what have you done for me,” but must be “what have you stopped from being done to me.” Cruz, however, will now ironically pivot to tell the American people what he wants to do as president. A presidential candidate cannot run on no agenda. We will finally get to see Cruz’s governmental agenda. We can finally decide for ourselves what the nation would look like after four years of a President Cruz.
Can you elaborate on what Ted Cruz has actually done?
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Before being elected to the U.S. Senate:
Have you ever heard of a Solicitor General?
Since being elected to the U.S. Senate:
He has been the Conservative voice for Conservative Americans,......
....been a U.S. Senator who went nose-to-nose with Obama, the Liberal Democrats and the RINO Republicans and stood for the Constitution; even when he had to stand alone....
In a nutshell, Ted Cruz took D.C. by a storm; rocking the old-line, Washington Establishment (in both Parties) and served notice that their days of running rough-shod over the American People, and the Constitution, was over: “I’m watching you and I will call you out and bitch slap you before the entire nation.”
All of the above is more important that sponsoring a bill to name a Post Office after some crusty, old, political fart. THERE’S A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN!
Calculating to cause them to take the bait and bite, then make them all look like fools when he changes gear.
Weasel Walker made a major blunder by going to a closed door chamber of commerce meeting.
Just saw Ted Cruz speaking at his speech announcing his run for Presidency.
Everyone ? Check it out, were he talks about born again Christians not voting in recent election cycles.
Turn up the sound and listen to the sound of Ted Cruz foot steps, sounds like someone who is in command.
Reminds me of the movie Kelley’s Heros when they were walking down the street towards the German tank with the : THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY theme playing.
Turn up the sound of Clint Eastwood walking down the street with spurs on his feet with the song, or theme from : THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY.
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