Posted on 05/01/2018 12:21:49 PM PDT by NobleFree
STAFFORD, Texas – As Ted Cruz took the stage at a dance hall called the Redneck Country Club and talked about his boyhood worship of such Texas legends as Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, Stephen Willeford watched with a smile from beneath the brim of his black cowboy hat.
At the beer joint just outside of Houston, Texas’ junior U.S. senator now in a high-stakes battle for a second term, was charming a nighttime audience of about 800 with ready-made applause lines defending gun rights and castigating Obamacare when he pointed out that Texas still has its share of heroes in the modern age.
And that’s when he introduced Willeford, the man who ran barefoot and armed with an AR-15 to do battle with the shooter who had just gunned down 26 Sunday-morning worshippers inside the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.
“There are husbands and wives and mothers and fathers and sons and daughters that are hugging and kissing their loved ones and breathing air because you acted. You risked your life and you saved theirs,” Cruz said above the loud cheering about the man who put himself in harm’s way to end the carnage Nov. 5. “That’s Texas. That’s who we are.”
The embrace of Willeford, a Sutherland Springs plumber whose actions vaulted him into the national spotlight, fits neatly with Cruz’s new “Tough as Texas” slogan that he unveiled during the three-day, 12-city tour of the state in early April that formally launched his 2018 campaign. Since bursting onto the political scene six years ago, Cruz has become perhaps Texas’ most well-known political figure who seems to have just as many admirers as he has detractors.
But on the campaign tour, Cruz was greeted by mostly friendly, sometimes even fawning, constituents who view him as the last bulwark between conservative governance and a liberal takeover.
Willeford said in a brief interview that until he met Cruz after the tragedy in his hometown, his only political activity was casting his vote on election day. But his actions outside the Baptist Church pushed Willeford into the national spotlight, and even earned him an invitation as Cruz's guest to attend the president’s State of the Union address in January.
Stephen Willeford, who engaged in a gun battle with Sutherland Springs killer Devin Patrick Kelley, in the VIP section of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's re-election rally in Stafford, Texas, on April 2, 2018.
(Photo: John C. Moritz/USA Today Network)
He recalled a meeting with Sen. John Cornyn when the subject turned to politics.
"I may not agree with everyone (in the GOP) 110 percent," Willeford said he told Cornyn. "But I didn't get to finish. What I was going to say was, 'I don't agree with everyone 110 percent — except Ted Cruz.’
“I am a very conservative man,” he added for emphasis.
At a campaign event the next day in Corpus Christi, Larissa McSwain said she was part of the tea party movement that propelled Cruz to victory in 2012. And like she did two years ago in the Texas Republican primary, she hopes she’ll get the opportunity to vote for him for president in the future.
“He does what he says he’s going to do,” said McSwain, whose 12-year-old daughter took a break from her home school studies to have her picture taken with Cruz. “We have a right to expect that from our elected leaders, but not all of them do.”
Born Rafael Edward Cruz in Canada to a Cuban immigrant father and an American mother, the 47-year-old is an Ivy League-trained lawyer. Cruz in 2012 was an unknown but fire-breathing product of the tea party wave that two years earlier had turned conventional politics upside down. He went from an asterisk in the polls to knocking off a well-known Republican who until then had an unbroken string of four consecutive victories in statewide elections.
And it was committed but largely invisible conservatives like Willeford and McSwain who powered the Cruz juggernaut six years ago. And Cruz knows he’ll need them again.
“There’s no doubt that the hard left is energized,” he told the USA Today Network during a bumpy ride aboard his campaign’s 2004 Ford Fleetwood Jamboree motor home dubbed the Texas Cruzer. “They’re angry and they hate the president."
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz speaks at a campaign event on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center in Corpus Christi.
(Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)
The warning that Texas Democrats in November will be roused from their generation-long stupor of defeatism was an unsubtle subtext to Cruz’s campaign swing that bounced from the Rio Grande Valley, up the Texas coastline, through San Antonio and Austin and into the rock-solid Republican strongholds of Wichita Falls and Midland.
The largest event was in Stafford where the aroma of barbecue smoke and the twangs of a live country band filled the air before Cruz, wearing tan ostrich cowboy boots beneath denim Levis, arrived.
Also in the background on an array of TV monitors scattered around the dance hall was a Headline News-style video showing a non-voting conservative who wakes up post-Election Day to reports that the Democrats led by California’s Nancy Pelosi and New York’s Chuck Schumer had taken over the House and Senate.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz greets supporters during a campaign stop Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center in Corpus Christi.
(Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)
The “newscaster” lamented that federal money that had been earmarked for border security was now shifted to fund more abortions, and impeachment proceedings were in full swing to drive President Donald Trump from the White House.
On the stage, where wood-paneled images of the American and Texas flags book ended the bandstand, Cruz spoke for 35 minutes without notes, but with plenty of applause lines and zingers delivered with the skilled timing of a nightclub comic.
Talking about the destruction of Hurricane Harvey, Cruz furrowed his brow with a look of weariness as he described the relentless rain that flooded his hometown: “And it stayed, and it stayed and it stayed, for four days – like your in-laws at Christmas.”
The crowd roared, and Cruz drew similar responses when he repeated the one-liner at every stop on the tour.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz hugs a veteran on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center in Corpus Christi.Christi.
(Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)
The folksy speeches by Cruz, a Princeton University and Harvard Law School graduate who with his wife Heidi has two daughters age 10 and 7, shelved the “I’m smarter than you are” delivery that sometimes creeps into his remarks. The tone, which he invoked when he accused Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of telling him “a flat-out lie” not only strained D.C. decorum, it often infuriated his colleagues.
Sen. John McCain, the Republican’s 2008 presidential nominee, called Cruz "a wacko bird.” Former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner cursed the Texan as “Lucifer in the flesh” and a “miserable SOB,” except he didn’t abbreviate.
Perhaps former President George W. Bush, for whom Cruz had worked early in his career, put it most succinctly during the 2016 presidential campaign: “I just don’t like that guy.”
It's a shared assessment. A poll in October by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune found that only 38 percent of respondents had a favorable impression of Cruz while 45 percent viewed the senator unfavorably.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz speaks at a campaign event on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center in Corpus Christi.
(Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)
Although Cruz never mentioned his opponent’s name during his stump speeches, he tacitly acknowledged that U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso is gaining traction both as a Democratic rock star and as a magnet for Democratic cash. Cruz didn’t mention President Trump by name, either, but he clearly understands that the mercurial business tycoon who bested him for the presidential nomination in 2016 could prove to be a millstone to the Republican effort this cycle.
But Cruz also knows there is comfort to be taken in more tangible data. For all of the national media attention – and for the millions of dollars in campaign donations – that have come O'Rourke’s way for more than a year, voters in Texas have already given Cruz the advantage.
A man sits with a Ted Cruz sign at a campaign event on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at theCongressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center in Corpus Christi.
(Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)
In the March primaries, not only did Republicans turn out one-third more voters than Democrats did, Cruz’s total vote count was 1.3 million to O’Rourke’s 645,000.
“I was very gratified by the fact that I received more than twice as many votes as Congressman Beto O’Rourke did,” Cruz said aboard the Cruzer. “So with all of the liberals nationwide excited about his campaign, when it came to real-live Texans voting, he got fewer than half as many votes as I did.”
Still, the incumbent said he's not underestimating his challenger.
“You’re going to see millions of dollars being contributed (to O’Rourke) from liberals all over the country,” Cruz said. “It would be a mistake to take (the race) for granted. That being said, there are a whole lot more conservatives in Texas than liberals.”
And on the stump, Cruz aimed to cement his relationship with those conservatives. He hit hard on such red-meat themes as unwavering support for gun rights, even using a simple mention of the AR-15 as a tool to draw cheers, and unyielding opposition to illegal immigration.
But mostly, rather than listing policy initiatives, Cruz employed almost idyllic imagery of the Lone Star State with a glowing homage to cattle ranchers and oil drillers, small business owners and first responders.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz speaks at a campaign event on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center in Corpus Christi.
(Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)
“Texas is strong, Texas is independent. Texas is fearless, Texas loves freedom and Texas is tough,” Cruz said in an ascending cadence. “We want low taxes and low regulation. And we want Washington to stay the heck off our backs.”
The flourish warmed his audience, but it also glossed over some sober facts of life for modern Texas.
Rather than rejecting federal help, several studies show millions of Texans not only gladly accept it, they depend on it.
An analysis by Governing Magazine, showed that Texans in 2017 received a total of $26.3 billion in federal money from welfare programs like Medicaid, food stamps and cash grants to needy families.
The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, reported that in 2015 more than 3.6 million Texans relied on Medicare to pay for doctor visits, treatment and medicine.
According to the U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, nearly 1.13 million Texans had signed up for the Affordable Care Act at the start of 2018. And although Cruz was a leader of the 2013 shutdown of the federal government over his effort to abolish what has become known as Obamacare, his home state ranks third in the number of people enrolled.
And it was his opposition to the Obama administration’s signature achievement that prompted dozens of protesters to greet the Cruz entourage when it arrived in Austin for an evening rally in a small industrial park.
At entrance to the sprawling parking lot, demonstrators held large banners that read “Repeal and Replace Senator Ted Cruz.”
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz speaks at a campaign event on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center in Corpus Christi.
(Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)
Karen Collins, an Austin retiree whose activism dates to the 1960s, said she and the others wanted to send the message that access to health care is a fundamental right.
“We’re here because we want everyone to know he wants to take away their health care," Collins said. "But we are not going to let him.”
In April, Cruz voted against the Republican-led $1.3 trillion spending bill on grounds that it would “plunge our nation even deeper into debt.” But he is not against all federal spending, especially when the money is headed for his home state.
In a recent news release, Cruz cheered a $5 billion grant from the U.S. Department of Housing to assist Texans recovering from Hurricane Harvey. In the same release, he boasted that HUD has sent more than $10 billion to Texas since Harvey struck last August.
“These funds will go a long way in meeting the needs of Texans who are continuing to rebuild,” Cruz said.
Insiders say running against Washington even as he leverages Washington assistance has served Cruz well so far, and it remains a smart strategy.
David Beckwith, a longtime operative who has advised such Texas Republicans as Cornyn and former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, said Cruz has effectively tapped into the growing vein of conservative voters who don’t want politicians to adapt to the ways of Washington. They want Washington turned on its ear.
“Cruz has captured the frustration with Washington and made it his own,” said Beckwith, also a one-time aide to Cruz’s 2012 rival, then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhust. “He has a strong following across the state who consider his outsider status in Washington to be a feature, not a bug.”
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz rides in his campaign bus following an event Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center in Corpus Christi.
(Photo: Casey Jackson/Caller-Times)
State Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Houston-area Republican who, like Cruz, is often a thorn in the side of his own party’s leadership, said the senator should take pride that “he is hated and despised in D.C.”
“The establishment has no party,” said Cain, who was among the Cruz admirers at the Redneck Country Club rally. “The conservative grassroots are motivated by ideals and loyalties to ideas. The political establishment doesn't have a moral compass, it's motivated by the desire of power.”
One of the knocks against Cruz was that as soon as he arrived in the Senate, the desire for power, particularly the presidency, was his own prime motivator. Just before exiting the Cruzer en route to the next campaign stop, Cruz brushed aside a question about a possible second run for the White House.
"I am running to serve and to serve my term," he said. "Every principle I was fighting for in the presidential race I have been fighting for in the United States Senate. And the United States Senate is the battleground right now. The battleground for defending freedom, the battleground for defending the Constitution."
TCruz may finally be waking up to the tough challenge he will face on Nov. 6, with a monolith of big city voters aiming to defeat him. They thinks this O’Rourke reminds them of John F. Kennedy, but O’Rourke looks more like Bobby Kennedy.
If we lose Texas and Cruz, we’re screwed.
At least he’s campaigning like he’s 20 points behind.
You are exactly right. Texas is getting too purple for comfort.
Gov. Abbott really needs to tighten the screws on voter fraud.
Cruz won’t lose. He won by over 1.3 million votes in 2012.
Yes, he does. That’s an excellent point.
Beta O’Cuck, the fake Mexican (but authentic Communist) and the Little Latin Lesbian Leninist Lupe Lou will go down in flames in November.
From your lips to God’s ears.
That's ALWAYS a good plan.
I lived in Live Oak, when I was stationed at Ft. Sam Houston. San Antonio is an interesting city. You’d think with all the Military and retired Military there, it’d be reliably Republican.
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6 yr. term |
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All 36 United States Representatives |
2 yr. term |
| Governor | 4 yr. term |
| Lieutenant Governor | 4 yr. term |
| Attorney General | 4 yr. term |
| Comptroller of Public Accounts | 4 yr. term |
| Commissioner of General Land Office | 4 yr. term |
| Commissioner of Agriculture | 4 yr. term |
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6 yr. term |
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3 members of the Supreme Court
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3 members of the Court of Criminal Appeals
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7 Members, State Board of Education
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All 150 State Representatives |
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5 Chief Justice of Courts of Appeals
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| Various District Judges |
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| Various Criminal District Judges |
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Various Family District Judges |
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County Court at Law |
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Judge, County Court-at-Law |
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| Judge, County Criminal Ct. | 4 yr. term |
| Judge, County Probate Ct. | 4 yr. term |
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District Clerk |
4 yr. term |
| District & County Clerk | 4 yr. term |
| County Clerk | 4 yr. term |
| County Treasurer | 4 yr. term |
| County Surveyor | 4 yr. term |
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County Commissioners |
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Justices of the Peace |
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Constable |
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I remember this conversation right before Governor Wendy Davis was elected.....oh wait!!!!
“Cruz won’t lose. He won by over 1.3 million votes in 2012.”
In 2012 Cruz outspent a cash-strapped Rat by a whopping 70-to-1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Texas,_2012#Fundraising
LOL!!!!!!!
It must be similar to San Diego...once reliably Republican but not now from what I understand.
It’s foolish to ever underestimate the enemy. It’s undeniable that Texas is no longer as red as it once was.
Credit to Cruz for running as an unabashed conservative and not some stoopid centrist.
Well...I’ve lived here seventy years...but you go ahead and think what you want.
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