Posted on 05/01/2013 5:39:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Freshman senator Ted Cruz is considering a presidential run, according to his friends and confidants.
Cruz won’t talk about it publicly, and even privately he’s cagey about revealing too much of his thought process or intentions. But his interest is undeniable.
“If you don’t think this is real, then you’re not paying attention,” says a Republican insider. “Cruz already has grassroots on his side, and in this climate, that’s all he may need.”
“There’s not a lot of hesitation there,” adds a Cruz donor who has known the Texan for decades. “He’s fearless.”
For the moment, Cruz’s inner circle is small: mostly aides from his Senate campaign; his father, Rafael; and his wife, Heidi. They didn’t plan on having these presidential conversations so early in his first term. Yet Cruz’s rapid ascent and a flurry of entreaties from conservative leaders have stoked their interest — and Cruz’s. “Ted won’t be opening an Iowa office anytime soon, but he’s listening,” says a longtime Cruz associate. “This is all in the early stages; nothing is official. It’s just building on its own.”
Behind the scenes, there is a palpable fear on the right that the GOP will nominate a moderate Republican in 2016. There’s also growing unease with the field of likely contenders.
Enter Cruz. His supporters argue that he’d be a Barry Goldwater type — a nominee who would rattle the Republican establishment and reconnect the party with its base – but with better electoral results.
Republican power brokers from the early-primary states have noticed. They tell me that the Cruz factor is a frequent topic of discussion among state-based strategists.
“You bet, he’s on my radar,” says Chad Connelly, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “Conservatives think he’s a rock star. I hear about him from everybody.”
Cruz’s allies whisper that the 42-year-old attorney, who holds degrees from Harvard Law and Princeton, doesn’t take the groundswell of enthusiasm lightly. Besides talking with conservative grandees, he has called his peers in the legal community and raised the prospect.
“We all see a path, and he does, too,” says a former Cruz colleague. “This isn’t someone who needs to be told the obvious. He didn’t run for the Senate to get cozy, so no one who knows him is surprised that he’s at least looking at it.”
Cruz isn’t worried that his birth certificate will be a problem. Though he was born in Canada, he and his advisers are confident that they could win any legal battle over his eligibility. Cruz’s mother was a U.S. citizen when he was born, and he considers himself to be a natural-born citizen.
As Cruz considers a run, his staff keeps adding new speaking appearances to his calendar. This week, he’ll headline the South Carolina GOP’s Silver Elephant dinner; in late May, he’ll speak to Wall Street heavies at the New York GOP’s annual dinner.
Earlier this year, Cruz gave the keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he was greeted with a raucous reception and praised by Sarah Palin. She touted Cruz as a conservative who “chews barbed wire and spits out rust.”
The debates over gun control, immigration, and President Obama’s appointees have fueled his rise. He has been out front on each issue, brashly battling Democrats and, if need be, his fellow Republicans. “He’s the purest of the young conservative senators — that’s how we see him,” says a consultant who works for a leading conservative group.
That ideological purity and Cruz’s presidential maneuvers make aides close to other Republican contenders nervous. The backroom Republican consensus is that a Cruz insurgency would hardly be a quixotic publicity stunt. He’d outflank almost all of the other candidates on the right, and his debating skills, which once won him national awards, would be formidable. It doesn’t hurt that much of the media already hates him with a passion.
He’s also tighter with Republican donors than most people realize. Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, is a close friend — one of many donors with Cruz ties. Four years ago, Thiel poured more than $250,000 into Cruz’s aborted race for Texas attorney general, and he has recently donated millions to groups supporting Cruz, such as the Club for Growth. Sources close to other top Republican donors tell me that the senator is as good at wooing financiers as he is at wooing the Tea Party.
Cruz is obviously only one of several Senate conservatives gunning for the nomination. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, among others, have been busy traveling to the early states and slowly building up their political staffs. So have GOP governors such as Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal.
For now, Cruz is running behind in terms of organization. But sources say that doesn’t deter him in the slightest. “If he thinks this country needs bold leadership, he’s not going to shy away,” the former colleague says. “He is one of the most confident people I know, and he’d run to win.”
— Robert Costa is National Review’s Washington editor.
Make Alberta a State and give Canada MA, RI and VT in return.
Best news I have heard all day. Go Ted Cruz!
Throw in Delaware California and Nevada and we have a deal. :)
Let’s just solve this problem right now and annex Alberta. What’s Canada going to do about it?
At this point and the fact that Obama’s pedigree was so obviously hidden, overlooked, faked, and ignored, I don’t give a flying flip about that point, IF it were for a Cruz-like opponent to rabid liberalism.
As long as the liberal/Democrat opponent is for real traditional values of honesty, hard work, adherence to existing laws (immigration) and fitting punishment and non reward for infractions thereof. I’m now just ‘lawless’ enough now to say “frack it”....they do it - we do it!
It’s when this Cruz-like opponent starts to go God complex like Rubio is where I have a big, big, big problem. For me there is no equivocation, no rationalizing, no quarter for things like Amnesty and illegals, pandering to hispanics for their votes in non-traditional American ways, any, repeat ANY more infringements on the Second Amendment whatsoever, and allowing this population to become further infested with leeching, entitlement whining losers, and those “immigrants” legal or otherwise who are only here to rape our bounty.
This is kind of a surprise. Thiel is a very prominent gay libertarian - so he obviously sees in Cruz a man willing to defend liberty and economic freedom above all else.
Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where his parents, Eleanor Darragh and Rafael Cruz, were working in the oil business.[8][9] His father was a Cuban immigrant to the United States during the Cuban Revolution.[10] His mother was born and reared in Delaware, in a family of Irish and Italian descent.[9][11] Cruz’s family returned to the U.S. when he was four years old./
His mother is from Delaware, his father is a cuban immigrant.
How about we have a Conservative primary? ....so that our winner goes on to fight Jeb Bush or whoever in the Republican primary?
If we have half a dozen conservatives with one Rockefeller/Bush Republican, they will take it again.
Even Hugo Chavez had to stage elections. Our vote hasn't affected the elite's desired result for a long time, because they have gotten very good at pre-arranging multiple compliant statists to choose from - but they still feel compelled to give us our "democracy theater."
It doesn't really matter since he's delusional if he thinks he has a chance. What the Democrats would do to him in the general election is nothing compared to what the Republcians would do to him in the primary.
Well then you’d probably love Jeb Bush. Another loser RINO.
RE: His mother is from Delaware, his father is a cuban immigrant.
So what does the Constitution say regarding a scenario like this?
Born of an American mother and a LEGAL immigrant father overseas??
Washington, was born in Sulgrave, England in 1732, and was a robust lad of 10 when he immigrated to the Americas.
John McCain was born in Panama.
Should be a minor issue unless the people on our side make a bigger deal of it that the opposition does. Which we probably will.
Washington was born in England??? What history book are YOU reading?
Washington was born in Virginia. And the Constitution specifically grandfathers in those born before the ratification of the Constitution.
Paul did not drink the amnesty kool aid. The had repeatedly stated NO NEW PATH to citizenship.
Would love to see him run.
I have been a rabid birther forever but if they let Rubio run they have to let Cruz run. At this point in the destruction of America I am only concerned about getting the right person in the Whitehouse in 2016. So far only Cruz has been on the right side of every issue.
Lol
Nobody is going to ride in on a white horse and save us. Ted is a good guy but its a long shot that someone conservative will make it all the way to the end. This will only get worse, the only way we can return to a smaller govt. and freer country is for more good people to truly sacrifice and take risks.
The government is run by an entrenched mob now and elections are rigged. They have figured out the formula to push the liberal candidates over the finish line almost every time.
We need more sheriffs, military, and police openly ready and willing to uphold their oath to the constitution. Citizen arrests of the federal representatives that are in obvious violation of the constitution I think would be a good start
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