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.
Sarah may very well run.
The MSM did nothing to her.
“Paul is trying to be on both sides of the issue by muddling what he is saying and has said.”
Look, he stated very clearly that he is against amnesty and against a path to citizenship. He and Cruz have the exact same position on this issue. But this of course doesn’t stop the Paul haters from spreading misinformation.
There’s going to be a vote on this very soon and the haters will have to find another phony issue to beat him up with.
Work visas, for those that qualify. Briefly Paul wants to secure the border before taking any action on illegal immigration. Also no benefits of any kind for illegals and no new pathway to citizenship.
Nicely stated.
Bumping for more Constitutional arguments from outhouse experts...
Please explain why not.
My reading on this is that only one of his parents was a US Citizen at the time of his birth. And he was born outside the U.S.
If there is evidence of his father having US citizenship at the time of Ted’s birth, then this might be a grey area.
I am a strong supporter of Ted Cruz, but have seen nothing that indicates he meets the Constitutional qualifications for President.
The Presidency is the only office that has that requirement. The law is what it is.
Washington was one of the founders and that generation was grandfathered in by the wording of the Constitution.
McCain was born of 2 US citizen parents, stationed in Panama. He was not born on the military base but a near by hospital. That was questioned seriously enough that a vote was taken in Congress to state that he was qualified. I personally think he was technically not qualified.
The Law is the Law.
This is a good ruse to get the SRM talking about him, making him a public figure.
But in the meantime, he’s trying to stop and hopefully help roll back all the crap POSHITUS had dumped on us. He will inspire our ‘14 candidates and get the momentum rolling again.
GO CRUZ!
RE: . That was questioned seriously enough that a vote was taken in Congress to state that he was qualified. I personally think he was technically not qualified.
So, why can’t the same thing be done in the case of Ted Cruz?
Worse come to worst, the constitutionality of his eligibility can be challenged in the courts and we can have this issue settled once and for all.
“Cruz isn’t worried that his birth certificate will be a problem. Though he was born in Canada,”
So far Cruz is the only one worth considering, but I don’t like the foreign born thing....we didn’t give Obama a pass for this reason...either we ‘believe’ or we don’t!
The truth of Cruz will come out when we see who he surrounds himself with.
I’m on board with a Cruz candidacy, if he makes a go of it. The obnoxious nativists around here need to shut up. The Kenyan has already shattered their argument beyond any repair.
The Constitution supersedes all US law. Statute changes do not change things specifically stated in the Constitution. Only changes by Amendment, and unfortunately by interpretation by the Supreme Court (that subject to being overruled they Constitutional Change by the Congress, next to impossible).
Surprising the number who stayed home for Romney and refuse to consider the one guy who could turn it all around.
There is no defined Constitutional path to the SCOTUS on NBC.
Strangely the Constitution requires NBC, but fails to define or establish any way to prove or disprove a candidate’s NBC.
English (and Colonial) Common Law gave us some definition and the exception of “born to Citizen Parent outside the USA”. The Founding Fathers apparently assumed everyone understood NBC and saw no need to document.
Don’t missunderstand me, I think Cruz is a great Senator.
But I will do nothing to diminish the Chains of the Constitution on the Federal Government. If they ignore the law, we are in a state of Lawlessness.
“Welcome to New Kenya (Africa USA) where the law of the jungle has replaced the Law of the Land.” ~Texas Fossil (posted here early 2009)
I’d find it very easy to go all-in for Cruz.
That'll help a lot if he runs as a Democrat, but we're assuming he won't.
There was similar discussion when Goldwater ran for POTUS. He was born in the AZ Territory. Yes, it was an issue even though both of his parents were US citizens.
Similar disputes were talked about with Romney. His family were Mexican citizens at one point. Some of them left the US during the polygamy dispute among the Mormons.
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