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."
Nice pic of the future first family.
I’d say, “Go for it, Ted. You’re my first choice.”
Sorry, no Goldman Sachs First Lady for me.
No First Lady who hosted fundraisers for Corey Booker and a first daughter who is best friends with Chelsea Clinton for me.
Please click on the pictures at the top of the columns for more details on the ratings of the candidates.
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More at Conservative Review: https://www.conservativereview.com/2016-presidential-candidates
Note: If you don't like the ratings for any reason, please contact Conservative Review's Editor-in-Chief, "The Great One," Mark Levin. But I have to warn you that you may get this response from him: "GET OFF THE PHONE, YOU BIG DOPE!"
A decent article on Cruz from Political, don’t expect to see much more of it.
With great respect, appreciation and admiration for Donald Trump.
He would have it no other way... CRUZ 2016!
I prefer that to one who posed naked for GQ.
Yeah they let one slip past the editors.
Cruz for me as well.
Trumps ratings don’t match his positions.
For example; he carries, and has stated that if the French people had been armed, none of this would have happened.
Who did that?
For example; he carries, and has stated that if the French people had been armed, none of this would have happened.
Conservative Review's rating for Trump on the Second Amendment used to be "RED." But CR is being generous after Trump's comment.
"In the past Trump has paid lip service to the Second Amendment. More troubling is that he supported the so-called assault weapons ban and a longer waiting period for gun purchases. However, during the 2015 campaign, Trump has made a major shift on Second Amendment issues. He released a policy paper on the Second Amendment which promises major reforms that gun rights activists have long wanted. Examples include support for national reciprocity for concealed carry permits, the end of weapons and magazine bans, and curtailing of the expansion of a failing background check system. Time will tell if the 180 about face is principled driven or merely political in nature."
- See more at: https://www.conservativereview.com/2016-presidential-candidates/candidates/donald-trump#article-13
Ivanka Trump Switches Teams For Cory Booker (ABC News Article)
Political odd couple: Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton (CNN Article)
The family looks lovely.
But the Goldman Sachs thing seems to take the Clinton Foundation off the table, like Romneycare took Obamacare off the table. I realize they are not the same thing, but that is not how the game is played.
And the plutocrat donors to Cruz are never going to be explained satisfactorily (what - - millions of dollars will have no influence? we should take someone’s word for that?) again taking the Clinton Foundation and Clinton financial corruption off the table.
Some FReeper posted Cruz trying to explain the Goldman Sachs thing. If someone has a link, could you post it again?
To my mind, Cruz responds by looking defensive and weaselly, unlike his usual self-assured and articulate self.
Nice family pic. Thanks, Isara.
Oh wow, your priests are beginning to budge in the face of the truth. They have far to go, but that’s better than nothing.
This is a candidate that is running not merely as himself, but as a whole family entourage. And not one that has roots for several generations in some kind of plutocracy.
Not to dismiss The Donald, who after all is running on his OWN money, and doing a decent job of busting trail into territory that has not been explored for a while, but Ted Cruz brings something of Norman Rockwell to the dialogue, something that has been missing for perhaps a generation.
During the years 1993-2001, we had Li’l Abner and Daisy May Yokum in the White House, but despite the “Ah, shucks” demeanor of Slick Willie, he was much more of a sideshow barker than The Donald has ever been. And “Daisy May” turned out to be a scheming sidewinder, vicious and cunning in ways that could not be imagined before seeing it on display.
It seems today
That all you see
Is violence in movies
And sex on T.V
But where are those good old-fashioned values....
On which we used to rely?!
Lucky there’s a family guy!
Lucky there’s a man who
Positively can do
All the things that make us...
Laugh and cry!
He’s our Fam-ily Guyyy!
The theme song for the American TV show “Family Guy”, created by Walter Murphy.
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