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Ted Cruz Has Two Big Problems
National Review ^

Posted on 02/20/2016 10:43:13 PM PST by springwater13

72 percent.

That's the number of Republican voters in South Carolina's primary that identified as evangelical or born-again Christians, according to exit polling. That's an eye-popping, record-shattering figure: It was 65 percent in South Carolina's 2012 GOP primary, and 60 percent in 2008.

With three-quarters of the electorate identifying as evangelical, it was shaping up as a great night for Ted Cruz, who launched his campaign at Liberty University and has boasted of building a "firewall" to dominate the March 1 southern states because of their ultra-conservative, religious composition. South Carolina represented the first test of that theory.

Cruz failed. Among South Carolina's evangelical Republican voters, Trump won 33 percent, Cruz won 27 percent, and Rubio won 22 percent. And while Cruz did carry the 38 percent of "very conservative" voters in the state, it wasn't enough to finish anywhere close to Trump. Nor was it enough to beat Rubio, whom he finished roughly 1,000 votes behind.

This spells trouble for Cruz on Super Tuesday. He remains better-organized than any other candidate across the south (which should make a difference, considering both Trump and Rubio benefited from having impressive field operations in South Carolina). But there's no question Cruz's inability to carry the evangelical vote here portends poorly for him in states of similar ideological and demographic makeup.

That's a big problem for Cruz on March 1. But he faces even bigger challenges beyond then. Both Trump and Rubio performed evenly with non-evangelicals in South Carolina: Trump took 30 percent, and Rubio took 22 percent. But Cruz saw a significant drop-off, winning just 13 percent of that group. This echoes Cruz's performance in Iowa (33 percent with evangelicals, 19 percent with non-evangelicals) and New Hampshire (24 percent with evangelicals, 8 percent with non-evangelicals).

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Florida; US: Iowa; US: New Hampshire; US: New York; US: Ohio; US: South Carolina; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 2016election; bencarson; canadian; christianvote; cruz; election2016; florida; ineligible; iowa; jebbush; johnkasich; marcorubio; newhampshire; newyork; ohio; sc2016; southcarolina; tedcruz; texas; trump
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To: ripnbang

Accountability for what? Reporting what CNN said?

What kind of “accountability” do you think there should be for a candidate repeating the report of CNN, based on what Carson’s own team had told CNN?


161 posted on 02/21/2016 2:28:41 AM PST by butterdezillion
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To: Vision Thing

Lol!! More like...

ConcocTED Retread??


162 posted on 02/21/2016 2:32:14 AM PST by Jane Long (Go Trump, go! Make America Safe Again :)
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To: patriot08

Calling in the riches, to the mountains.

Wonder what his PACs think about that ;-)


163 posted on 02/21/2016 2:34:05 AM PST by Jane Long (Go Trump, go! Make America Safe Again :)
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To: butterdezillion

You’re welcome. That is a concern of mine, as well.


164 posted on 02/21/2016 2:35:28 AM PST by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: grey_whiskers
"If you have any high-powered spin, this is the thread you need to back up the truck and unload it onto."

Back it up back it blub blub blub ...

165 posted on 02/21/2016 2:45:20 AM PST by StAnDeliver ("Sweet, sweet tears ..")
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To: QuinqueViae
DEFEATED

TRUSTED

166 posted on 02/21/2016 2:49:52 AM PST by grania
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To: butterdezillion

Accountability for not having a message that resonated with the majority of SC primary voters. Heck, he didn’t even win with evangelicals in SC...that was supposed to be his bread and butter. It’s not over by any means, way too long to go yet, but as far as the SC primary the voters have spoken. Cruz would do well to examine what went wrong and fix it, because NV is about to take place.


167 posted on 02/21/2016 2:50:55 AM PST by ripnbang ("An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man a subject)
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To: moehoward
Santorum had a good trajectory toward the nomination until he started yapping about "the need to compromise". Then Romney came out with the rhetoric of a forceful Constitutional Conservative. Romney got to the campaign against Obama, dropped the rhetoric he used to get the nomination, and threw the election to Obama.

How quickly we forget.

168 posted on 02/21/2016 2:53:44 AM PST by grania
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To: Utmost Certainty

I don’t think he’s a spoiler. I’m voting for Trump next week here in Georgia, but I expect Cruz will take second. I am disappointed that he didn’t best Rubio but it is understandable from a state that elected Lindsey Graham and now has Nikki Haley as governor.

From my perspective, I don’t look at SC as a bellwether of Red State outcome across the south, certainly not with Rubio.


169 posted on 02/21/2016 2:56:02 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Jane Long

From what I gather from another poster this is something new and as yet not circulated


170 posted on 02/21/2016 3:06:36 AM PST by patriot08 (5th generation Texan ...(girl type))
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To: All

This:

http://aattp.org/flashback-rafael-cruz-calls-son-ted-cruz-an-anointed-king-responsible-for-the-end-time-transfer-of-wealth/

OMG


171 posted on 02/21/2016 3:09:22 AM PST by patriot08 (5th generation Texan ...(girl type))
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To: springwater13

There should be a Conservative Christian Party, separating the sheep from the goats, as it were. Perhaps that will come about soon...or Bible believing Christians will simply drop out of politics and take care of their own families and neighbors. If Christians would do that, instead of shifting that responsibility to ungodly government, the results would be better.

Jesus does not require Christians to be involved in the political arena, only that they “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” which means paying taxes. We would have to do that to Muslim conquerors, as Jews in Jesus day did to their Roman rulers.

Christians ought to be preparing for their next life, spending more time on the Scriptures than on the computer. God is in control and the earth’s Last Day has been set from its beginning.


172 posted on 02/21/2016 3:21:07 AM PST by txrefugee
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To: ripnbang
Ever think Cruz may just not be that appealing of a candidate

Yep. The guy lacks charisma, some pols have it, some pols don't. JFK, Reagan, Clinton, W. have it. LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Bush Sr. don't.

Ted's a lawyer, let him prosper doing lawyer stuff. He'd better serve the country as either the Attorney General or fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. President? Nope.

173 posted on 02/21/2016 3:25:35 AM PST by csvset ( Illegitimi non carborundum)
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To: TigerClaws; P-Marlowe
Carson got his revenge. Kept Cruz from the 2 spot.

And he's funded all the way through to the convention. He'll continue to siphon off potential Cruz votes.

More importantly Cruz apparently is not appealing to anyone beyond the very conservative label.

That's nice for very conservative people to know and to admire, but they are about 15% of the Republican base vote. There is no pathway to victory with that number.

Rubio, on the other hand, is clearly in favor of amnesty. The very issue that is vehemently opposed by very conservative people is the very definition of a Rubio candidacy.

Will the very conservatives deny their basic objection and vote for Rubio or will they turn to someone else? I don't know Carson's real position on the border. I know it now looks like Trump, Rubio, Cruz, Carson, Kasich. Kasich is Bush on amnesty. Cruz has no pathway to victory. Trump is vehemently anti-illegal immigration, and despite the venom on this and his other positions, he even beat Cruz among evangelicals. He won every group across the state: conservatives, evangelicals, moderates, military. He won every district. He took every delegate.

Will very conservative people choose Trump or Rubio is the real question here.

174 posted on 02/21/2016 3:27:19 AM PST by xzins (Have YOU Donated to the Freep-a-Thon? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: fireman15

You are on it! Very well stated.


175 posted on 02/21/2016 3:39:57 AM PST by Migraine (Diversity is great -- until it happens to YOU.)
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To: butterdezillion
most of them claiming it's because they don't like Cruz claiming to be Christian.

That isn't even close.

No one here objects to Cruz calling himself a Christian.

I personally object to the fact that his behavior doesn't line up with his claim.

But you knew that too.

176 posted on 02/21/2016 3:46:02 AM PST by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton
Cruz was one of the very few heros in the Senate recently

Amazing how quickly that fact disappeared from the scene. Proof to me that even among self-styled conservatives, social conservatism remains at best suspicious and at worst deeply unpopular.

177 posted on 02/21/2016 3:47:48 AM PST by madprof98
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To: TigerClaws

I never thought about it this way; you might be right!


178 posted on 02/21/2016 4:03:17 AM PST by MSF BU (Support the troops: Join Them.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

He’s been libeled.

Right now I am so angry at Carson I could spit. Check it out: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3399816/posts?page=77#77

Carson’s people lied to frame Cruz as leaking the story about a “closet meeting” between Cruz and Carson against Carson’s agreement, when in truth the first report that came out (and the source for EVERY report in the media) was a hit-piece against Cruz written by somebody who admitted that their source was the CARSON campaign. There was NO word of this from the Cruz people, just a hit-piece against Cruz while the Carson campaign lied about Cruz “leaking” the story. CRuz has said nothing about the story even when asked to do so. So exactly what report was the CArson camp disgruntled over? The only report that showed up was The Daily Beast, which acknowledged it was the CARSON camp that was their source.

Sickening!

But he’ll get away with it. The narrative of a slimy Cruz has been written and nobody’s gonna let the truth get in the way of a good old-fashioned lynching.


179 posted on 02/21/2016 4:11:16 AM PST by butterdezillion
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To: Theophilus

The establishment party that Rubio represents 100% passed on pulling taxpayer funding for planned parenthood for selling baby parts. Do you really think Rubio will do ANYTHING?


180 posted on 02/21/2016 4:20:47 AM PST by McCarthysGhost
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