Posted on 12/15/2014 7:44:01 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has a plan for running for president in 2016, according to National Review: don't focus on winning over Independents, instead hedge on getting "Jews, Hispanics, and Millenials."
That's according to a new report in National Review on Monday which said that the Texas senator, if he does decide to run for president as he's rumored to be planning on, has a strategy for victory that does not center around winning independents. As an unnamed adviser put it to National Review, "winning independents has meant not winning."
The Cruz circle cited John Kerry in 2004 and Mitt Romney in 2012, who respectively won Independents but lost anyway, as well as George W. Bush in 2000 where he won Independents but lost the popular vote.
Cruz's team directed National Review to internal polling that showed 40 percent of Hispanics in Texas supporting the junior senator from Texas. The advisers also noted that on social media he's the most discussed potential presidential candidate.
There's data stacking against this strategy. According to the Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project, Jewish voters split 69-30 for President Barack Obama over Romney in 2012.
TPM has previously highlighted the shape of Cruz's (unofficial) campaign team. Like TPM, the National Review report cited that Cruz's campaign would likely be run by Jason Johnson, who helped Cruz win election in 2012, and Jeff Roe, a Republican consultant who runs Axiom Strategies and is reportedly planning on moving to Texas.
What about Americans ?
He’s already got this millennial.
Like I have Said, He already his this Millenial and Jew (though I am not Hispanic, so Ball I guess :P)
Many of the above are Americans, aren’t they?
He is only 42 years old, so most of the younger generation will vote for him. Go Ted Go!
2/3 is better than 1/3. ;)
I will raise $2 million dollars to help him and train anyone to raise money.
I stand with Ted
I agree, going after the independents = losing. The truth is they just vote for however they think is going to win. Appealing to them is useless. You go after the people that actually care, and the independents will follow like the lemmings they truly are.
You mean those aren’t Americans? Pundits are mostly wrong when it comes to Cruz
I’m in
Huh? I bet most FReepers are independent. Not a 'R'. But a conservative. Though, that probably already counts toward Ted.
If Hispanics really are all the commie ‘RATS say they are, they should be voting for conservatives without needing to be “courted” by Senator Cruz. Unfortunately...
One little secret about 2008 was that McCain was finding the vast middle-ground voting pools VIRTUALLY EMPTY. Everyone leaning left and beyond was infatuated with the idea of being part of the first black president. The Republican base, which is now the Tea Party, was simply going to stay home. People, such as one of my parents, who said that if McCain ran, he’d consider voting for him, laughed when reminded of that, and then denied it...instead stayed home with Obama. The Goldwater blowout would have been dwarfed. Even all the love from the media was over, now that he was criticizing Democrats. There simply was no one left for McCain, and his people knew it.
So he needed Sarah to save the day, and she nearly did. Getting him close to even in the polls, before his disastrous “suspending my campaign” stint during the financial meltdown. But she still brought him millions of votes...voters that then stayed home in 2012, as they didn’t think much of that ticket...voters that then came out in 2014 in the desperate hope they could send a message, once and for all (didn’t happen, yet).
Ted Cruz is VERY WISE for his age, or any age, he sees several things:
1) That the vaunted “middle ground” dries up to next to nothing, once the election draws near.
2) A Republican that cannot pull the base out to vote, simply doesn’t have a chance...the base is 60-70% of the Republican vote, you don’t win by ignoring them.
3) Reagan never left the base feeling abandoned - he did reach to the center, but only after being sure the base was locked-down and ready to vote for him.
4) If the base has another choice, they will leave moderate Republicans and go there. That’s why Perot did so well in 1992, yet John Anderson (bless his heart) couldn’t pull off any votes from Reagan, despite the best efforts of the Democrats to do so.
5) Cruz knows that he simply cannot go through The Establishment, they hate him and wish more than anything to have access to the brake lines under his car.
Never forget. The first priority of the Republican Establishment is “stability” as they see it, no extremism (as they call it), so when a Reagan or Cruz comes around, they are HATED. The second priority is winning. It’s sad to see our party this sick, but I’m convinced that the Tea Party will not be shunted aside much longer.
i would think a big idea would be to make Hispanics and Asians into GOP voters.
I hearing Jeb Bush want run for 2016 that plan really OH NOOOOO! on my part
Are they? This is identity politics. I thought we were against that?
I am just curious as to why you would believe anything that the msm writes about ‘what Ted must do’ to win
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