York: With all eyes on Trump, Cruz rises in GOP race

Your Houston News ^ | August 24, 2015 | Byron York, Syndicated columnist

[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.

[Empire View]

“...Cruz did better with voters under 45 years old than any Republican candidate except Donald Trump.”

We keep hearing that millennials are so liberal.

[iontheball]

But where are the national polls on being competitive against a Democratic Party nominee? Let’s get real, Cruz is having to struggle in Republican primary polling. I like Cruz but realistically he lacks the charisma to attract a broad base of voters. He is too cerebral, which I like, but unfortunately does not carry the day for a huge, less intellectual voter segment.

[Catsrus]

He’s only been in office for a little over 2 years. I hardly call that “several” years.

[Catsrus]

I like Cruz too, maybe not at the top of the ticket, but, I find that he talks at us - not to us. That’s what has been missing.

[iontheball]

All of a sudden the craptastic media is pushing Cruz. Wonder why?
_____________________________________
I will tell you why. The MSM has determined they want Cruz as a foil like they wanted McCain. Once Cruz is the nominee, they will crucify him like they did McCain. They can play play that game with anyone but Trump. So Cruz is the foil to nullify Trump. If they can propel Cruz to take out Trump, they know the game is over.

[Boardwalk]

No way Cruz is anywhere close to McLame level!

[EvilCapitalist]

I think they mean by Code Pink, and Lesbian activists. Oh wait...

[parksstp]

ok, name 1 time the MSM has gotten the better of Cruz.

Cue Jeopardy Music now...

Now crawl back to your liberal candidate.

[hoosiermama]

YES !

[UCANSEE2]

Cruz vs. Trump. May the best man win.

[cripplecreek]

The small town strategy is working effectively. Cruz has spoken about the disdain that the inside the beltway and media set feel for flyover country people and our parochial ways. They smile politely at the idea that we really believe in God, our constitution, and freedoms but feel that they know a better way and we’ll just have to learn to accept it for our own good. Stopping in many small towns cements it in people’s memories and they feel like he really cares.

Rafael Cruz was here in Michigan for a week and had 5 different speaking engagements. I’ve got a couple of neighbors in my little town of under 150 people who heard him speak and haven’t stopped talking about it for 3 weeks. One says she feared that Ted Cruz was just a rabble rouser in the senate but she checked him out and has decided to raise some rabble of her own. She’s at the post office every morning and talks to everybody who comes in there.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I’m starting to think that they’re a team.

[UCANSEE2]

Wonder why?

According to some of today's articles, it's because they are afraid of Trump.

The conclusion then would be that they are not afraid of Cruz.

[UCANSEE2]

I don’t think they are a team yet. I think both are intelligent enough to see where cooperation can aid them both.

[Tucker39]

Because, good man or no, the deep pockets donors will own him, just like they do every other politician candidate. Trump is the ONLY one who’s totally his own man.
CRUZ for Veep!

[867V309]

The conclusion then would be that they are not afraid of Cruz.

I like Cruz. Nevertheless, that is my thinking too.

[cripplecreek]

Chris Hayes admitted in 2012 how afraid he was of Ted Cruz.

In october 2007 I sat in the media gallery of the united states supreme court and watched the solicitor general of texas argue on behalf of the state that he should have the ability to put to death a mexican national, Jose Medellín, who had been convicted of raping and murdering two teenage girls in houston. He won that argument and he (Medellín) was executed by texas on august 5th , 2008 , despite the objections of the united nations and the international court of justice . at the time, I had no idea who this man arguing on behalf of texas was. but all I could think was holy crap , this guy is good. it was one of his nine times arguing before the supreme court and he was witty, incredibly fast on his feet and clearly had a brilliant legal mind. it is to this day one of the most impressive displays i have ever seen before the court and i have had the good fortune to spend a lot of time there. so you can imagine my horror in 2012 when i tuned into the texas senate race. i hadn't been paying much attention to. and realized that lieutenant governor david dewhurst , the republican establishment candidate, was being prepared by a tea party candidate who was the same guy i saw kick ass in the supreme court in 2007 . i thought that night, night i made that connection, oh, this is trouble. and trouble that man has been. trouble in every direction. as he vies to be the singular voice of the right wing grassroots and as he has very quickly assumed a leadership role in movement.

Is Ted Cruz the most dangerous man on the American right?

[caww]

...." The left will eat him (Cruz) alive".....

What?????

Ted Cruz is not a Politician, he is a rare American Statesman! Nobody has yet eaten him alive and he yet stands!..... There's a broad difference between the Further Cruz has been under constant pressures by the “establishment” and standing against it for a very long time , the RNC and the DNC have been on his tail from the get go for years now because he can’t be bought..... They've done everything possible to block Cruz....he has been The lone voice in the U.S. Senate...........

Cruz on the Senate floor..."if we allow those who are here illegally to be put on a path to citizenship, that is incredibly unfair to those who follow the rules!....

Doing everything in his power to stop/defund Obamacare

Ted has been declaring loudly and the message was clear to the GOP, return to the Constitution or prepare to be ousted.

[NoDRodee]

Trump is the media darling, Cruz is building grass roots support. Cruz’s work will pay off in the end, conservatives are not going to let the media push Trump on us like they did Romney and McCain

[867V309]

So Cruz is the foil to nullify Trump. If they can propel Cruz to take out Trump, they know the game is over.

Hate to say or even think it, but may be the truth.

In a perfect world we could stick with Cruz. In our flawed and sinful world, we have 0bammy, Hitlery, and the fact that Trump may be more electable than Cruz.