The Rise of Rafael Cruz

The political partnership between Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and his father, Rafael, is a rising force in conservative politics. To most observers, it seems like part of a familial game plan that has been in the works for years.

But according to Senator Cruz, it actually began quite recently with a phone call. “My dad poured himself into my Senate race last year,” he recalls. “In the early months, we didn’t have much of a campaign. One day, I couldn’t make an event, so he drove out to West Texas alone — no staffers, nothing — and he spoke on my behalf. A few hours later, I called and asked how it went. He said, ‘Even surrogates for the other candidates were asking for Cruz yard signs.’”

Ever since, Cruz has kept his father, a 74-year-old pastor, involved with his political shop, using him not merely as a confidant and stand-in, but as a special envoy. He is Cruz’s preferred introductory speaker, his best messenger with evangelicals, and his favorite on-air sidekick — a presence who softens his edge. This past Sunday, the pair sat for a joint CNN interview, one full of aw-shucks asides.

This summer, father and son have also been traveling together throughout the country, speaking to conservatives in Iowa and elsewhere. Their roadshow has enthralled many on the right and startled Cruz’s potential 2016 rivals. No one else in the emerging GOP field has an ally like the charismatic elder Cruz.

There Rafael Cruz was in Des Moines, Iowa, last month, speaking to ministers at the Marriott hotel and collecting business cards in the lobby; a month later, he was in Ames, Iowa, pacing the stage at a conservative summit and drawing cheers for his broadsides against President Obama. His fiery speech at a FreedomWorks event in July drew heavy praise from talk radio.

Rush Limbaugh especially loved how Rafael Cruz compared the president’s “hope and change” message to Fidel Castro’s appeal decades ago. “This guy is knocking it out of the park!” Limbaugh exclaimed.

Conservative leaders agree. Bob Vander Plaats, a top Iowa conservative who hosted the Cruz duo last month, calls Rafael Cruz’s speeches “inspiring” and says the image of a father and son laboring together resonates with values voters. Former senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who now runs the Heritage Foundation, is another admirer. He has worked alongside Rafael Cruz this month to rally against Obamacare.

“Rafael actually called me and volunteered to contribute to Heritage’s ‘defund Obamacare’ tour, and it has been amazing to be with him,” DeMint says. “He opens with a prayer, which gets as much applause as anything else, and then he gives a call to action, talking about how his freedom was taken away in Cuba and how important it is that we never lose our freedom here.”

As part of that tour, Rafael Cruz attended his son’s town-hall meetings in Texas last week, where he called out the Republican establishment for not backing a fall standoff over Obamacare’s funding. “There is a great disconnect between promises and action,” he told a Dallas crowd, not far from his home in Carrollton. “If there’s one thing I’m proud of about my son, it’s that he’s doing exactly what he told each and every one of you that he’d do.”

Attendees there went wild for him, loving his punchy, often politically incorrect rhetoric. They leapt to their feet as he closed his remarks and a soaring rock track began to play. A minute later, Senator Cruz emerged from backstage and strolled toward the dais with his arms open. Father and son embraced as fists pumped. Another episode of Cruz-apalooza had begun.

Beyond his oratory, though, it’s Rafael Cruz’s sway in his son’s inner circle that makes him a power broker. His son trusts his father’s political instincts, and instead of hiring a big-name Republican strategist to shepherd his ascent, he uses his father for the kind of guidance you’d expect from a consultant.

Rafael Cruz has already taken five trips to Washington, D.C., this year, usually spending a week each time. He stays at his son’s apartment, and while his son is on Capitol Hill, he hosts meetings and catches up with Cruz-friendly activists and donors. In the evenings, he and his son talk politics deep into the night.

When the Senate is out of session and they hit the road, Rafael Cruz arrives at events in advance of his son’s team, informally scouting the room and huddling with organizers. He relishes the game — warming up local Republicans, shaking hands, and regaling them with stories about his son. Later on, he’ll call the busy freshman senator and give him a preview of the scene.

Sources close to Cruz say those who run Cruz’s operation, both in his Senate office and on the political side, have learned to work with Rafael, and that for many of them, their boss’s father has become a mentor. They also appreciate his tact: He’s clearly the insider of insiders within Cruz’s camp, but he doesn’t overdo it, leaving the mechanics of Cruz, Inc., to aides such as his campaign adviser Jason Johnson, or his chief of staff, Chip Roy.

Rafael Cruz does not take his arrival in the heart of the conservative movement’s upper echelon for granted. He may project confidence and verve when he’s in front of a tea-party audience, but, he tells me, he wept when his son took his oath, and every day he says a prayer of thanks that he and his son can work together at the national level.

Whereas his son’s biography is a straightforward narrative of a child prodigy turned senator — Princeton, Harvard Law, Supreme Court clerk, and Texas solicitor general — Rafael Cruz’s life has been far more complicated.

Born in Matanzas, Cuba, he grew up in the Cuban middle class in the 1950s, as the son of an RCA salesman and an elementary-school teacher. As a teenager, he grew to detest the regime of Fulgencio Batista. He and some of his schoolmates frequently clashed with Batista’s officials. Eventually, he linked up with Castro’s guerrilla groups and supported their attempts to overthrow Batista.

It’s a decision he still regrets. His move toward Castro, he explains, was mostly due to his anger with Batista’s government, which at one point imprisoned him and tortured him for his work with the revolutionaries. He says he never shared Castro’s Communism, but, at the time, it was the best way to fight Batista’s oppression. By age 18, in 1957, he knew he needed to get out, and a friend essentially bribed an official to secure him an exit permit.

Soon after, with his parents still in Cuba — they wouldn’t come to the U.S. until 1966 — Rafael Cruz arrived in Austin, Texas, where he began to study mathematics and chemical engineering at the University of Texas. He had little more than $100 to his name, and he could barely speak English. But, by working seven days a week, he was able to graduate in 1961.

In the early 1960s, Rafael Cruz was also beginning to start a family. He married and had two daughters, and he started to work in the energy industry. But the marriage ended after only a few years, and Cruz found himself at a difficult crossroads in his late twenties. (One of his daughters is now a physician in Texas; the other is deceased.)

Cruz decided to move to New Orleans to take a new job, which is where he met his second wife, Eleanor Darragh, a computer programmer from Delaware, who was also working for an oil company. They married, moved to Calgary, Alberta, and in late 1970 had their first and only child, Rafael Edward Cruz.

They weren’t in Canada long, choosing to move to Houston, where they continued to work for oil companies. He became a Canadian citizen while working there, he says, but it never felt like home. Back in Texas, he became a permanent legal resident, and it wasn’t until 2005 that he formally became a U.S. citizen. “Oh, I know I should have done it sooner,” he says. “I love this country so much, but you cannot change the past.”

It was also back in Texas, in 1975, when his life changed. After attending a Bible-study meeting with a colleague, he became a born-again Christian, leaving his days as a non-practicing Roman Catholic behind.

“The people at the Bible study had a peace that I could not understand, this peace in the midst of trouble,” Cruz says. “I knew I needed to find that peace by finding Jesus Christ.” His son and wife followed him, becoming born-again Christians as well. Around the dinner table, the talk was almost always about the Bible or the latest happenings in the Reagan administration.

His faith, he says, also saved him from becoming bitter and depressed when the oil industry sagged in the mid 1980s and his professional life hit a low point. “There was a big crash and many of my clients went bankrupt,” he says. “It got so bad that I had to close my business. I became a salesman here and there, and I started to build a ministry, as a sort of traveling preacher.”

As Rafael developed his own extemporaneous speaking style, he shared his methods with his son, who was a star student by middle school. But instead of pushing him toward preaching, Rafael wanted Ted to have a minister’s confidence and cadence as a debater. He repeatedly quizzed Ted on the Constitution until he memorized it, and critiqued his enunciation.

Cruz’s mother, Rafael chuckles, played more of a good-cop role. Though they are now divorced, he says his son has a similarly close relationship with her, just without the political element. “I live outside Dallas, but she lives in the same high-rise condo complex as him in Houston,” he says. “She loves taking the elevator to see her granddaughters, and he appreciates that.”

“As for our relationship, I coached him, yes, but it was a close relationship in all respects,” Cruz says. “We used to go sailing together on vacations, and we’d talk and talk. After he was at Princeton, he was on the debate team, and I’d go every time I could when he was winning all of these debates. I did the same thing when he argued before the Supreme Court.”

The dynamic of their relationship hasn’t changed much; it has adapted. Back in January, soon after his son was sworn in, Rafael followed Ted as he made the cable-news rounds in Washington, D.C. At the time, few of the producers working for CNBC or Fox News even knew who he was, other than an older gentleman with wisps of snow-white hair, standing in the back near the cameras.

One chilly January night, moments before an interview at a cramped studio on North Capitol Street, a technician asked Rafael Cruz to step away from the cables. Most guests of guests, he reminded him, stay in the green room. Senator Cruz, standing under the bright lights nearby, heard the exchange and said, “That’s my father.” The technician nodded, and Rafael Cruz, as ever, stood firm in the shadows, watching.

YOU aren’t verified in any way.

And no, we’re not getting fooled, because YOU are not fooling us.

The unmittigated gall.

Bug off to DU.

Excuse me, is this a religion, with articles of faith - or are we discussing politics?
Did we complain that Obama’s so-called scholastic achievements are unverified, and that there are undocumented gaps in his history? If there is justification for demanding verified information about Obama and his murky family history, don’t we have to apply the same standard to our own side?
Don’t you see that you are doing the same thing with Cruz that the Dems do with Obama - they wanted him because they thought he was the perfect candidate, so they ignored inconsistencies, glossed over half-truths, concealed information, and smeared anyone who dared question their messiah.
And now you are trying to suppress me, instead of being grateful that someone who is informed about Cuban history and politics is pointing out what’s wrong with this picture? You should be glad that I’m giving you the heads up - like I did about Rubio, when no one here wanted to listen - before some enterprising leftist reporter uncovers all the facts and rains on your parade bigtime.

Let me suggest degree of nastiness is crucial but there’s got to be more.

Suppose you did it in subtle enough manner that you eked by on nastiness.

But the mere fact that somebody is here with totally unverifiable accusations that a conservative star’s FATHER lied about early life in another country when the son himself only knows what his father has told him, and this somebody claims WE’RE being fooled because we don’t accept HIS claims of liar against Rafael?

Not to mention we’re supposed to destroy the son for backing his father’s account of when he was a teenager in CUBA?

Make no mistake, destroying Ted Cruz is what this clown is here for. He could care less about Rafael Cruz, minus the lure of destroying Ted.

This is crazy.

Whether I am verified is not the point. I am not running for public office. But if I were I would expect that statements I made about my father - whether I said he was a refugee or a decorated war hero or a child prodigy on the piano - would be subjected to the same rigorous examination that we would like for Obama’s information. Especially if while running for public office my father was constantly at my side as a featured part of the campaign, being brought forward and identified as a war hero, refugee, recovering alcoholic, self-made millionaire....whatever.

Your surly and unpleasant accusation - that I am from the enemy camp - is completely unworthy of FR. I am simply questioning inconsistencies and pointing out facts that contradict the very muddled and often changed account of Rafael Cruz’s early life.

I am simply questioning inconsistencies and pointing out facts that contradict the very muddled and often changed account of Rafael Cruz’s early life.

Um ... that's just not intellectually honest, IMHO.

You have ... as judge, jury and executioner ... decided that both Ted and Rafael Cruz are liars and have spouted this false calumny far and wide.

Actually, I like and admire Ted Cruz very much, which is why it concerns me that the story about his father - which he has made a centerpiece of his campaign - has changed and is riddled with inconsistencies.
Because it is not enough to like and admire someone, and to desperately need them to be the hero on the white horse to save the day for your side. If they are equivocating about their background, it’s only a matter of time before the enemy media will ferret out the truth, and then Humpty Dumpty will have a big fall.
It’s unfortunate - and very unfair - that the Clintons and Obamas, et al can lie and misdirect and cover up all day long and never get called on it. It’s terribly unfair that our side is held to a different standard, and their parking tickets are investigated. But knowing that, we can’t just run blindly behind our own version of “hope & change”, snarling at anyone who dares to question a candidate’s presentation or viability.
Because that’s not a winning strategy for our side.

Because I know as a fact that one didn’t need permission to leave Cuba in 1957 - as I said before, there were ferries between Havana and Florida, and day trips and weekend trips, from the US to Cuba, and from Cuba to the US, were a common, everyday occurrence.
What was necessary was a visa to enter the US if you were coming to live here - and that was granted by the US government, not the “Batista regime”.

First of all, I am not a dude.
Secondly, I am not making an accusation against Rafael Cruz. I am questioning the validity of his legend, according to Moscow Rules - that should always be applied in any situation pertaining to Cuba.

I am intimately informed about the years 1950-1960 in Cuba.
Your supposition that Cuba was in chaos in 1957 is completely wrong, and also quite surprising to read from an author of your stature. At that very moment, US and foreign tourism were at an all-time high, new luxury hotels were being built, and the most famous figures of US entertainment, in movies and music were appearing regularly in Havana venues.

In 1957, there were opposition media, openly critical of the government, that published prominent writers - some of whom were self-professed communists. There was also a communist daily newspaper and a communist party-run radio station. They were functioning freely, with none of their personnel in prison.

At the time of the Castro takeover, in January of 1959, Cuba was full of tourists, permanent residents from the US, hundreds of US businesses, and the US embassy was functioning normally. All were taken by surprise. Cuba had just had national elections - in which Batista had not run - and a new president was about to come into office.

US and foreign tourism were at an all-time high, new luxury hotels were being built, and the most famous figures of US entertainment, in movies and music were appearing regularly in Havana venues.

Gosh, simply Nirvana (on the surface). Almost sounds just like today ... Michael Moore raving about Castro's health care system; famous figures of US entertainment appearing regularly ... Jackson, Belafonte and Nicholson shouting ... Viva Fidel ....

btw, did the trains run on time too?

I don’t think it works that way. I think that political figures are supposed to provide documentation when they say their uncle liberated a concentration camp, or that they created a trillion dollar business from a nickel.

I don’t think it’s acceptable to be part of a political campaign and say “I was arrested and tortured” and provide no evidence. Furthermore, Cruz did the same thing as Rubio - initially trying to pass off his father as a refugee from Castro, then, whoops - some enterprising reporter discovers that the father got here before 1959 - and they start to backpedal.

You clearly have made accusations about Daddy Cruz, using the “L” word and also assuming you know what HIS situation was in 1957. I submit that you probably dont know everything you think you do. And you have also been anything BUT circumspect in your questioning. This is why you are getting flamed.

You are also overstating the part Cruz’ father is playing in this entire dynamic. Today was the first time I’ve seen his father, and I’ve been following him since before his primary victory. In other words, your claim that Daddy is the “centerpiece” is frankly insulting and certainly not accurate.

And you are also conflating the ideas brought against your case and therefore making irrelevant replies.

Clearly, I do not know what the story is with Daddy Cruz. I wasn’t there. I am somewhat familiar with pre Castro Cuba, but not enough to have any idea whether or not his personal story is likely true or not. It may be false. But having no reason to think that, I am not rushing to judgement.

And besides, defunding Obama Care is not relevant to this in any way, shape or form.

You aren’t questioning anyone’s credentials right now except Rafael Cruz’s account of leaving Cuba when he was 18 and other things concerning his teen years there fighting the dictator.

Rafael Cruz is not running for anything.

Ted Cruz MIGHT run for President, but you obviously know he has already built tremendous grass roots support for what he has done until now.

You must think we are all extremely stupid. We will NEVER believe that you are here for political reasons concerning RAFAEL CRUZ. What you are here for is to harm Ted Cruz as much as you possibly can.

Again we are not so stupid as to blame Ted Cruz even if there was some inaccuracy in an account by his future father as a very young man in Cuba and upon leaving Cuba for America.

We have no reason to believe there was, but if there was, you wouldn’t be here yakking your clownish head off about it unless it was against the SON, not the FATHER. But to get anywhere with your smear, you have to hope people are so clueless they would blame the son for accepting what his father told him about his background.

There is no other explanation for YOU, being here, doing this.

And I can assure you, you are engaged in an EPIC FAIL.

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