Posted on 11/28/2015 7:11:15 AM PST by Isara
In the Texas senator's bid for the White House, his father and wife are the tip of the spear.
To one degree or another, every candidate running for president has enlisted their family in their effort. But none have gone so far as Ted Cruz, whose surging campaign has placed his wife Heidi and father Rafael at the tip of the spear, leading fundraising and organizing efforts as if they were paid staffers.
Neither has a formal title, but as the Texas senator continues to roll out endorsements and assemble a growing network of supporters in the early states and across the South in anticipation of the March 1 primaries, the influence of his wife, on leave from her position as an executive at Goldman Sachs, and his father, a pastor who is a fixture on the evangelical speaking circuit, is becoming stamped across his campaign.
Rafael Cruz has been central to his son's evangelical outreach efforts for months. For many Christian conservatives, the first introduction to the Cruz family was through Rafael, who served as a key bridge between religious leaders and the campaign. Last summer he did a multi-city swing through Iowa churches where he was accompanied by the Cruz campaign's Iowa state director and preached about the importance of getting Christians to vote. His son is rarely the subject of his sermons - but it's implied.
For most of the campaign, Heidi Cruz focused almost singularly on fundraising. But after largely playing a behind the scenes role, she has started ratcheting up her public presence in recent weeks. She joined Twitter this month and has already done solo swings through states including Alabama and Georgia, maintaining a pace that sometimes rivals her husband's, with as many as three stops a day. She has a heavy travel schedule planned through the end of the year.
Just as important, Heidi Cruz has joined Rafael Cruz in quietly courting lawmakers, according to several legislators who are backing Cruz, sometimes forming a one-two Cruz family punch before the senator gets involved.
Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent Iowa social conservative whose Family Leader organization hosted a presidential forum earlier this month, has met at various times with Rafael, Heidi and Ted Cruz as he weighs an endorsement.
"Cruz definitely has made this a family affair," he said, ticking through all the spouses of candidates he hasn't met.
Like other candidates' wives, Heidi Cruz's public mission is, in part, to soften the edges of her husband, who is reviled by many of his Senate colleagues. But her actual portfolio is much broader, encompassing fundraising, strategy and tactics.
The Cruzes met while working on George W. Bush's campaign - and Heidi Cruz held several roles in the Bush administration - so she is as comfortable talking strategy with donors and GOP officials as she is in the more traditional political spousal role of opening up about family life and humanizing her husband.
"She's very sharp in her own right, very impressive," said South Carolina State Rep. Wendy Nanney, who got a call from Heidi Cruz during which the two discussed the Texas senator's record as well as Nanney's own work challenging abortion rights. "It was a great conversation with her, I was very comfortable, and that led into a meeting with him, [and my] being very comfortable and able to talk very openly."
Nanney is now one of Cruz's South Carolina co-chairs.
"Ted and Heidi are the closest Republican equivalent of the political powerhouse couple Bill and Hillary Clinton," said Cruz campaign chair Chad Sweet. "Their marriage was forged in the heat of a presidential campaign and their partnership in American politics has not stopped since. Each is a formidable politico in their own right."
Now, through social media and radio hits, women's lunches and phone calls to key activists, Heidi Cruz is intensifying her public efforts to shore up support for her husband, a mandate that includes showcasing a gentler side to a candidate who is rising in the polls but is sometimes stiff while working a crowd, and has drawn criticism from top Republicans ranging from John Boehner to George W. Bush.
"This election is going to come down to trust," she said in a recent interview with POLITICO. "If you are looking to trust someone, you need to know them, and knowing them is multidimensional...The news media loves to portray Ted as such a serious person, the media tells you he doesn't connect, and when I tell you these things about how well he connects not only with voters but with family, I think it goes against that narrative."
She talks about her husband's fondness for Broadway musicals and his inside jokes with their two young daughters, and in front of women's groups has stressed that he has compassion for single mothers, in part because that was his half-sister's experience.
"I want to show people that Ted can unite this party, that Ted is speaking to common-sense principles that bring us all together," Cruz said. "I also want to show this country that he is incredibly thoughtful, both professionally and personally. This is a man who's never missed a date night, who's never missed a birthday, who loves his girls so much like every father does in this country.
"Not all the public know that yet, and the media loves to paint him as a fiery, outspoken advocate for the extreme right that can never win," continued Cruz, vowing to show that that's not the full picture.
Steve Deace, an influential conservative Iowa radio host who is backing Cruz, had several meetings with the senator, his wife and his father. Deace's wife also had lunch with Heidi Cruz.
"They each have God-given roles and just complement each other very well," said Deace, calling them a "model contemporary Christian couple."
"Ted's got the killer instinct when it comes to pursuing principles," he said. "Heidi's got the killer instinct when it comes to gathering resources to run a successful campaign."
Yet Deace's first connection to the Cruz family was through Rafael Cruz, whom he met in Iowa evangelical circles. That's not an uncommon experience: Eric Woolson, who worked on Christian conservative outreach for Scott Walker in Iowa before the Wisconsin governor dropped out, told POLITICO recently said that he was constantly running up against pastors who were glowing about "how impressed they were with Sen. Cruz's dad, how much work he'd done."
He probably believes he is the best deal maker on the planet.
Whether or not he really is, he seems likely to make a serious effort to cause it to come to pass.
Folks like Jeff Sessions know a sun when they see it, and make hay while it shines.
(Shall we keep up the cosmic humor.)
Jesus made all time and space. So what’s wrong with being a space case.
Do you even know who Cruz's big donors are or are you just posting low information nonsense?
again taking the Clinton Foundation and Clinton financial corruption off the table.
Wishful low info thinking on your part.
Of course it won’t literally do that, but it will make it more difficult to explain. More trouble will need to be put into it.
God bless your soul, don’t you know all creation testifies to the Lord. Including the planets.
Space...outer or head? ;-)
Space in my heart for the Lord, not all these silly caricatures that I am being belabored with needing to accept “in order to be a Christian.”
Well, you were telling Cruz how to be a Christian. I heard something about planets too.
:D
I like that.
If that is to be so, may God speed. Maybe getting launched as the VP Robin to Trump’s Batman.
— Do you have any hard evidence of wrongdoing on Mrs. Cruzs part? Or is it all guilt by association? —
No question it is all guilt by association. To my knowledge, purely guilt by association.
In a way, that is the point. The leftist media destroys using guilt by association. And no Republican politician has yet found a way to defeat the practice. Cruz does not give the slightest indication he can do so.
That is not a knock on Cruz. That is simply reality.
Evidence? Since when has the leftist media needed evidence to construct a brutal narrative which drives out perfectly good people (Palin etc)?
The Goldman Sachs connection and the plutocrat donations will be enough fodder to construct a narrative which removes the Clinton corruption as an issue.
How good Cruz does in the debates (he would demolish Hillary) is irrelevant to the leftist control of our culture.
Cruz is a brilliant conservative. But so was Sarah.
Every conservative needs to ask who can defeat the leftist cultural hegemony, because we all know how brutally unfair things will be.
To start with, the necessities of holding political office will have weakened any Republican office holder, regardless of how good.
I realize it is just my opinion, but I think that weakness cannot be overcome by an officeholder.
Took me 10 minutes to track down who Cruz's four big money donors are what their special interests are.
I would tell him by starting to let Jesus save him. He’s got a lot of natural and cultural advantage. But that is going to get disassembled by the devil if that is ALL he has.
Well fine, but you cared. Getting those who care only a little to care is the tricky part.
Nah...Trump needs to be on the move Internationally doing all the “Deals” he says he can do, the VP position would afford him that movement easily....not behind a desk in Washington where he doesn’t know the terrain and would take too long to find his footing there...this nation cannot take that time in it’s condition as it is.... Cruz already knows it and has his team in place when his feet hit the ground.
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