Sen. Ted Cruz

[Ryan Ruck]

I noticed we didn't yet have a thread dedicated to Mr. Ted Cruz who is a hard-charging, up-and-coming Conservative champion in the Senate.

He's definitely one guy I can get behind. In fact, I actually like him moreso than Marco Rubio, especially due to their respective stances on "immigration reform".

I'll start this thread with this article:

Cruz 2016

The freshman senator is considering a run for president

May 1, 2013

Freshman senator Ted Cruz is considering a presidential run, according to his friends and confidants.

Cruz won’t talk about it publicly, and even privately he’s cagey about revealing too much of his thought process or intentions. But his interest is undeniable.

“If you don’t think this is real, then you’re not paying attention,” says a Republican insider. “Cruz already has grassroots on his side, and in this climate, that’s all he may need.”

“There’s not a lot of hesitation there,” adds a Cruz donor who has known the Texan for decades. “He’s fearless.”

For the moment, Cruz’s inner circle is small: mostly aides from his Senate campaign; his father, Rafael; and his wife, Heidi. They didn’t plan on having these presidential conversations so early in his first term. Yet Cruz’s rapid ascent and a flurry of entreaties from conservative leaders have stoked their interest — and Cruz’s.

“Ted won’t be opening an Iowa office anytime soon, but he’s listening,” says a longtime Cruz associate. “This is all in the early stages; nothing is official. It’s just building on its own.”

Behind the scenes, there is a palpable fear on the right that the GOP will nominate a moderate Republican in 2016. There’s also growing unease with the field of likely contenders.

Enter Cruz. His supporters argue that he’d be a Barry Goldwater type — a nominee who would rattle the Republican establishment and reconnect the party with its base — but with better electoral results.

Republican power brokers from the early-primary states have noticed. They tell me that the Cruz factor is a frequent topic of discussion among state-based strategists.

“You bet, he’s on my radar,” says Chad Connelly, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “Conservatives think he’s a rock star. I hear about him from everybody.”

Cruz’s allies whisper that the 42-year-old attorney, who holds degrees from Harvard Law and Princeton, doesn’t take the groundswell of enthusiasm lightly. Besides talking with conservative grandees, he has called his peers in the legal community and raised the prospect.

“We all see a path, and he does, too,” says a former Cruz colleague. “This isn’t someone who needs to be told the obvious. He didn’t run for the Senate to get cozy, so no one who knows him is surprised that he’s at least looking at it.”

Cruz isn’t worried that his birth certificate will be a problem. Though he was born in Canada, he and his advisers are confident that they could win any legal battle over his eligibility. Cruz’s mother was a U.S. citizen when he was born, and he considers himself to be a natural-born citizen.

As Cruz considers a run, his staff keeps adding new speaking appearances to his calendar. This week, he’ll headline the South Carolina GOP’s Silver Elephant dinner; in late May, he’ll speak to Wall Street heavies at the New York GOP’s annual dinner.

Earlier this year, Cruz gave the keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he was greeted with a raucous reception and praised by Sarah Palin. She touted Cruz as a conservative who “chews barbed wire and spits out rust.”

The debates over gun control, immigration, and President Obama’s appointees have fueled his rise. He has been out front on each issue, brashly battling Democrats and, if need be, his fellow Republicans. “He’s the purest of the young conservative senators — that’s how we see him,” says a consultant who works for a leading conservative group.

That ideological purity and Cruz’s presidential maneuvers make aides close to other Republican contenders nervous. The backroom Republican consensus is that a Cruz insurgency would hardly be a quixotic publicity stunt. He’d outflank almost all of the other candidates on the right, and his debating skills, which once won him national awards, would be formidable. It doesn’t hurt that much of the media already hates him with a passion.

He’s also tighter with Republican donors than most people realize. Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, is a close friend — one of many donors with Cruz ties. Four years ago, Thiel poured more than $250,000 into Cruz’s aborted race for Texas attorney general, and he has recently donated millions to groups supporting Cruz, such as the Club for Growth. Sources close to other top Republican donors tell me that the senator is as good at wooing financiers as he is at wooing the Tea Party.

Cruz is obviously only one of several Senate conservatives gunning for the nomination. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, among others, have been busy traveling to the early states and slowly building up their political staffs. So have GOP governors such as Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal.

For now, Cruz is running behind in terms of organization. But sources say that doesn’t deter him in the slightest. “If he thinks this country needs bold leadership, he’s not going to shy away,” the former colleague says. “He is one of the most confident people I know, and he’d run to win.”

[Ryan Ruck]

Texas Republican Sen. Cruz Eligible To Be President Should He Decide To Run

May 19, 2013

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz was born in Canada but is qualified to become president should he mount a campaign in 2016 or beyond.

Cruz was born in Calgary, and his father is from Cuba. But the Republican senator’s mother is from the first state of Delaware, which appears to settle the issue.

Government officials didn’t exactly have to scramble for the information amid speculation the firebrand freshman senator was contemplating a presidential run and might be ineligible, considering similar questions about President Obama’s birth prompted the Congressional Research Office to compile a 2009 report to try to resolve the issue.

The 14-page report by the non-partisan office’s legislative attorney Jack Maskell essentially states the Constitution sets out three eligibility requirements to be president: one must be at least 35, a resident within the United States for 14 years and a “natural born citizen.”

The report states "the weight of scholarly legal and historical opinion appears to support the notion that 'natural born citizen' means one who is entitled under the Constitution or laws of the United States to U.S. citizenship 'at birth' or 'by birth,' including … those born abroad of one citizen parent who has met U.S. residency requirements."

However, Maskell points out in an expanded, Nov. 2011 memorandum “there is no Supreme Court case which has ruled specifically on the presidential eligibility requirements, although several cases have addressed the term ‘natural born’ citizen. And this clause has been the subject of several legal and historical treatises over the years, as well as more recent litigation.”

Cruz has excited the Republican Party’s conservative base during his first five months in the Senate – while annoying moderates – by opposing everything from Obama Cabinet nominations to the bipartisan Senate immigration bill.

The 42-year-old Cruz has yet to publicly announce his intentions, but in front of a microphone he talks mostly about big-picture national issues, with most of the presidential buzz coming from supporters.

“I’ve been in 25 cities in the last few months, all I have to do is mention Ted Cruz’s name, and they stand up and cheer,” former South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint said at a state party dinner earlier this month. “They’re hungry for someone who’s not afraid, willing to stand up and trying to change the status quo.”

Obama’s eligibility was questioned by a group of people labeled birthers because they though his Hawaii birth certificate was fake and that he was born in Kenya. His mother was from Kansas and his father from Kenya.

Others have faced similar questions including Obama’s 2008 presidential opponent Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.

McCain was born on a military installation in the Panama Canal Zone where his mother and Navel officer father were stationed. And George Romney, father of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, was born in Mexico but still ran for president in 1968.

[American Patriot]

Good!

[Ryan Ruck]

James Carville: Ted Cruz Is The Most 'Fearless Republican' I've Seen In '30 Years'

May 5, 2013

Freshman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) received praise from an unlikely source on Sunday.

In an interview with ABC's "This Week," longitme Democratic strategist James Carville lauded Cruz for his attitude since taking office in January.

“I think he is the most talented and fearless Republican politician I’ve seen in the last 30 years,” Carville said. “I further think that he is going to run for president, and he is going to create something.”

Results of that potential presidential run aside, Carville added that Cruz "is going to be something to watch" because he "has no fear."

In a Friday visit to South Carolina, Cruz appeared eager to connect with voters, asking for onlookers to text his political action committee, the Jobs, Growth & Freedom Fund. The 42-year-old's appearance came on the heels of a Wednesday National Review report that had sources saying Cruz is in an exploratory mode of 2016 thinking.

“Ted won’t be opening an Iowa office anytime soon, but he’s listening,” a longtime Cruz associate told the conservative publication. “This is all in the early stages; nothing is official. It’s just building on its own.”

A few months into his first Senate term, Cruz has already stirred the pot among his colleagues. His aggressive style of questioning during Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's confirmation hearings stoked comparisons to infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) and his anti-Communist rhetoric. Last month, New York Times columnist David Brooks went so far as to say that Cruz looks like McCarthy.

[American Patriot]

Something wrong with Carville? Sick or something? Senile? Changing sides? Trying to sabotage the Right?

LOL

[Ryan Ruck]

When you're pissing off John McCain, you know you're doing something right!

John McCain Is the Latest Senior Senator to Have Had Enough of Junior Ted Cruz

May 22, 2013

For two days John McCain and Ted Cruz have been fighting on the Senate floor over the rules for negotiating a budget, but, like so many fights, it's also about so much more. Cruz is being annoying about the budget, but worse, he just doesn't get the Senate.

Republicans criticized Senate Democrats for years for not passing a budget, but now that they have, some Republicans are preventing the senators from negotiating with House Republicans to pass a budget in conference committee. But on Tuesday, Cruz, as well as Rand Paul, wanted to block the conference committee, because it might compromise. "This fight right now is the fight over the debt ceiling, because what it would mean if we go to a conference committee is that as sure as night follows day, we would find ourselves in a month or two with a debt ceiling increase coming back ... with no conditions whatsoever," Cruz said, as The Washington Post's Lori Montgomery reports. McCain said that was ridiculous. "So we don't trust the majority party on the other side of the [Capitol] to come to conference and not hold to the fiscal discipline that we want to see happen? Isn't that a little bit bizarre?" McCain said. Susan Collins agreed.

On Wednesday, Cruz had a retort. He said of McCain:

"The senior senator from Arizona urged this body to trust the Republicans... Let me be clear, I don’t trust the Republicans. I don’t trust the Democrats and I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don’t trust the Republicans or the Democrats because it is leadership in both parties that has got us into this mess."

But this isn't just about budget negotiations. There is bipartisan agreement that Cruz doesn't follow the norms of the Senate. He's rude, he doesn't respect his elders, he's "Jim DeMint without the charm," an anonymous Republican senator told The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus. Earlier this month, Cruz recently had a spat with Harry Reid, in which Reid called him "the very junior senator from Texas." Cruz kept saying he was "Reserving the right to object," and Reid responded, "there is no such thing, OK?" Even in the spat over the conference committee, Cruz's fellow senators were not-so-gently suggesting that he doesn't get how the Senate works. "We have called repeatedly for a return to regular order in this body," fellow Republican Susan Collins said on Tuesday. "Well, regular order is going to conference." Democrat Barbara Boxer tried to break it down further, saying that while she thought the House budget was "apocalyptic," and Cruz probably felt the same about the Senate version, "They're going to get into that conference and they're going to work together. That's called democracy."

[American Patriot]

I damned sure don't trust either party any more.

Still registered as Republican, but unless the "Tea Party" comes up with a good party name besides "Teabaggers" lol I'm not changing, I'll just vote however I see fit, until I don't vote any more. (Which might be soon).

[Ryan Ruck]

THIS is how scared the GOP is of the Tea Party and Ted Cruz.

Fox’s Wallace Stunned: GOP Leaders Sent Me Opposition Research on Ted Cruz

September 22, 2013

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said Sunday morning that he’d received opposition research from other Republicans about Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in advance of Cruz’s appearance this morning, a serious indication of how upset the GOP is with the Senator leading the risky charge to defund ObamaCare.

“This has been one of the strangest weeks I’ve ever had in Washington,” Wallace said. “As soon as we listed Ted Cruz as our featured guest this week, I got unsolicited research and questions, not from Democrats but from top Republicans, to hammer Cruz.”

“This was a strategy laid out by Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz without any consultation with their colleagues,” said Karl Rove. “With all due respect to my junior Senator from Texas, I suspect this is the first time that the end game was described to any Republican Senator. They had to tune in to listen to you to find out what Ted’s next step was in the strategy.”

“You cannot build a Congressional majority, in either party, for any kind of action, unless you are treating your colleagues with some certain amount of respect, and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think of my idea?’” Rove said. “Instead they have dictated to their colleagues through the media, and through public statements, and not consulted them about this strategy at all.”

Rove also corrected Cruz’s interpretation of a Wall Street Journal as giving the GOP the advantage on whom Americans trust on health care. “I wish that were true,” Rove said, pointing out that Democrats still held the advantage, but were at an historically low number.

Watch the clip below, via Fox News:

[American Patriot]

Hmmm.... I wonder why the REPUBLICANS are scared of him?

He's going to out them all probably. lol

[Ryan Ruck]

Sarah Palin: Fox News Should Reveal GOP Leaders Who Provided Opposition Research on Ted Cruz (and a Prominent Conservative Backs Her Up)

September 22, 2013

After “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace revealed that GOP leaders had contacted him with opposition research on Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) ahead of Cruz’ appearance on the show, at least a couple of conservatives opined Sunday that Wallace should reveal which Republicans dropped dime.

Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and former GOP vice presidential nominee, was one of them:



Conservative radio host Mark Levin — whom Glenn Beck interviewed for the first time earlier this week — backed her up on Facebook:



All this comes on the heels of Palin’s scathing op-ed Saturday that calls out the Republican establishment for being “gutless and rudderless” in the face of the fight to defund Obamacare and urges lawmakers to get behind Cruz and others who are eschewing media popularity and voting against universal health care.

Palin wrapped it all up with an appearance on Fox News Sunday, in which she doubled down on her disdain for “GOP elephants that would actually turn on a senator who is fulfilling his campaign promises.”

After host Monica Crowley notes a few GOP lawmakers who’ve criticized Cruz, including McCain’s old running mate John McCain, Palin pulls no punches:

“We ask as an American people collectively that they not wave a white flag and just capitulate and give in to the liberals and to those who want this socialized program of health care coverage in our nation,” Palin says.

Here’s Palin on Fox News, via YouTube. The first five minutes of the interview contain the most relevant commentary:

[American Patriot]

They don't have too. McCain.... Crying Man.... to name two.

[Ryan Ruck]

Don't forget McCain's same-sex senator, Lindsey Graham.

[Ryan Ruck]

Grover Norquist Turns to Progressive Media in Crusade Against Ted Cruz

October 29, 2013

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) president Grover Norquist has now turned to left-wing media to continue his smear campaign against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a first-year senator already emerging as a leader of the Republican Party.

“I have never had a criticism of Ted Cruz’s strategy because I’ve never been able to find it,” Norquist said Monday night on Sirius XM’s Standup with Pete Dominick, according to a report in The Daily Beast. Dominick is a reliably progressive radio host who hosts his show on the liberal POTUS network on Sirius XM. The Daily Beast is similarly liberal, having dropped notions of objectivity when Tina Brown killed the Newsweek arm of the publication.

Norquist’s staffers have engaged in a deliberative Twitter campaign against Cruz and the Tea Party movement. Ryan Ellis, the tax policy director for Norquist’s downtown Washington, D.C., organization, recently attacked the National Review’s Andrew Johnson on Twitter. “hey look, the idiot from NRO who thinks shutting down the govt defunds obamacare is attacking me, too,” Ellis tweeted, referencing a story Johnson posted on National Review’s website including a tweet showing he views Sen. Cruz as a “despicable man who lies to good people.”

Ellis also called Tea Partiers “freaking retarded.”

“I've gotta tell you, man, I'm starting to think these tea party activists are freaking retarded,” Ellis said in one of the tweets Johnson posted, directed at right-of-center writer David Freddoso.

Ellis later apologized in part, only for calling Tea Partiers “retarded.”

“As someone with a Down Syndrome first cousin, I should not have used the word ‘retarded’ in any context,” Ellis tweeted later, hardly walking back his attacks on the conservative movement that made his boss Norquist who he is today. “It was a throwaway heated term.”

In another tweet that Johnson did not post at National Review, Ellis called Cruz a “demagogue who lies to the base.”

While Ellis took much of the heat from Grover Norquist’s ATR for running these tweets, he is hardly the only Norquist operative waging battle with the Tea Party on Twitter. Patrick Gleason, Norquist’s director of state affairs at ATR, tweeted that he believes Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is Sen. Cruz’s “butt boy.”

“.@redstate @Freedomworks & co want to primary ‘squishes’, but looks like they also may need to defend Cruz's butt boy,” Gleason tweeted, with a link to a Washington Post article about establishment efforts to go after Sen. Lee.

Gleason also called for Sen. Lee to lose his position in the U.S. Senate, adding former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist--who unsuccessfully primaried Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) last year--in that tweet. “UT needs a US senator who wants to rep the state, as opposed to being the errand boy of the junior senator from TX,” Gleason tweeted. “CC: @DanForUtah.”

Gleason also attacked Sen. Lee in another tweet by saying he was Cruz’s “sidecar.”

John Kartch, the communications director at Grover Norquist’s ATR, blamed Sen. Cruz via his Twitter feed for Cook Political Report saying several House Republicans are vulnerable because of the government shutdown. “Thx Cruz RT @RyanLizza: Cook Political Report: ‘we are making changes to our ratings in 15 House seats, all but one in Dem direction,’” Kartch tweeted.

Kartch also argued that Cruz is responsible for what the Washington Post argued was a massive lost opportunity by Republicans against Obamacare. “Ahem, Cruz RT @TheFix: How Republicans blew a massive political opportunity on Obamacare,” Kartch tweeted, with a link to a story in the Washington Post arguing the GOP lost a shot at Obamacare.

Adam Radman, the grassroots campaign manager for Norquist’s ATR, accused Sen. Cruz of lying when he said the establishment GOP did not have a strategy against Obamacare. “Sen. Ted Cruz said people opposed to the ‘defund’ tactic didn't have a strategy? That's completely false!” Radman tweeted.

In recent weeks, Norquist has lost any chance to spread his messages through conservative media. Glenn Beck, the founder of The Blaze, has come out against Norquist publicly. The National Review has clearly, as evidenced by the Johnson story referenced here, lost trust in him. Red State has come out swinging against him, too, with that publication’s editor Erick Erickson calling on Tea Partiers to remember that Norquist’s organization believes has said it believes they are “retarded,” while only offering a pseudo-apology, next time Norquist comes calling them for help. Thus, it's no wonder why Norquist runs to the left to attack Cruz.

[American Patriot]

WTF is wrong with people?

[Ryan Ruck]

Ted Cruz: President Obama Runs America Like A “Corrupt Dictator” Not Bound By The Law

January 10, 2014

Sen. Ted Cruz compared America under President Obama to a corrupt dictatorship in which the chief executive decides which laws to follow and which to ignore. He cited the Obama administration delay of the employer mandate under the Affordable Health Care Act. He said the directive to ease deportation of immigrant parents and not to defend the federal ban on marijuana in states like Colorado and Washington that choose to legalize it were other examples of the president’s “consistent pattern of lawlessness.”

“If the president of the United States can simply pick and choose which laws to follow… we know what that looks like,” Cruz told small-government conservatives Friday. “There are countries on this globe where that is how the law works. You look at corrupt countries where the rule of law is meaningless, where dictators are in power and they have things they call law. But what does law mean?”

Cruz, who delivered an extended speech on the Senate floor against Obamacare and was a prime factor in last year’s government shutdown, told a conference of the Texas Public Policy Foundation he has not given up the fight to repeal the federal health care law. At a news conference afterwards, Cruz declined to say whether he would use upcoming budget battles in Congress to press the administration and potentially shut down government again. But he leveled a sharp critique against the Obama administration as an “extraordinary threat to the liberty of this country. A president who is not bound by the law is no longer a president. And if you love liberty that should concern you greatly.”

Phillip Martin, deputy director of the left-leaning Progress Texas, said Cruz’s opposition to Obamacare has hurt Texans, not helped them. “Ted Cruz’s temper tantrums cost taxpayers billions of dollars and did nothing for the 6 million Texans without health insurance,” he said.

Cruz, who is considered a potential candidate for president in 2016, was introduced by former Sen. Phil Gramm. Gramm compared Cruz’s effort to derail Obamacare — against the wishes of some in his own party — to the siege of the Alamo. Gramm acknowledged Republicans were hurt politically by the government shutdown, according to polls. Gramm said when Col. Travis drew a line in the sand to fight, some volunteers crossed it and some did not. “The ones who didn’t cross the line died too. But no one remembered their names,” he said. Actually, according to the story of the Alamo, only one person didn’t cross the line and he left safely before the fight. In all likelihood, he has died since — as it was 178 years ago. His name was Moses Rose.

[Ryan Ruck]

'Face the Nation' Edits Out Senator Cruz Condemning Obama's 'Abuse of Power'

January 26, 2014

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) appeared on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday morning and was met with a barrage of questions from host Bob Schieffer about his involvement in the government shutdown. Apart from being the victim of Schieffer’s accusations that the Tea Party senator was to blame for the shutdown, it also appears that Mr. Cruz was the victim of editing by CBS.

Based on video from Senator Cruz’s YouTube page and what aired on today’s Face the Nation broadcast, the senator’s comments surrounding President Obama’s “abuse of power” were edited from the program. Instead what aired was a segment that ignored many of the senator’s complaints directed at President Obama. [See the aired and unaired videos below.]






In the video that aired on CBS, the interview between Schieffer and Cruz ended with the following back and forth:

BOB SCHIEFFER: Will you run for president?


SEN. TED CRUZ: Well, look, my focus is on the challenges facing this country right now (UNINTEL) senate. My focus, for example, is on the abuse of power from the president. Let's take something like the IRS scandal--


BOB SCHIEFFER: So, I'll take that as a yes or a no.


SEN. TED CRUZ: Eight months ago--


BOB SCHIEFFER: Or still thinking about it.


SEN. TED CRUZ: Well, what you can take that as, is that my focus is standing and fighting right now in the senate to bring back jobs and economic growth. Economic growth is my number one priority…


BOB SCHIEFFER: Thank you, so much, for joining us and we'll talk to you again.

However, as Senator Cruz’s YouTube channel showed, the Texas senator had extensive commentary on President Obama that mysteriously did not make it to air, just two days before the president’s State of the Union address:

SCHIEFFER: “Will you run for President?”


CRUZ: “My focus is on the abuse of power of this President. Let’s take something like the IRS scandal-“


SCHIEFFER: “Do I take that as a yes or a no?”


CRUZ: “What you can take is that my focus is standing and fighting right now in the Senate to bring back jobs and economic growth. Let me tell you something that is deeply concerning—the abuse of power from this Administration. We’ve seen multiple filmmakers prosecuted and the government’s gone after them. Whether it’s the poor fellow that did the film that the President blamed Benghazi and the terrorist attacks on, turns out that wasn’t the reason for the attack but the Administration went and put that poor fellow in jail on unrelated charges. Just this week it was broken that Dinesh D’Souza, who did a very big movie criticizing the president, is now being prosecuted by this Administration.”


SCHIEFFER: “Senator-“


CRUZ: “Can you image the reaction if the Bush Administration had went, gone and prosecuted Michael Moore and Alec Baldwin and Sean Penn?”


SCHIEFFER: Senator--


CRUZ: It should trouble everyone the government uses government power and the IRS in particular to target their enemies and you are talking a new minutes to Chuck Schumer—“


SCHIEFFER: “We are going to leave this for another day, senator. Thank you for joining us and we’ll talk to you again.”

Now it is certainly plausible that CBS edited out the ending of the Cruz interview for time, however given that Cruz’s comments were extremely critical of the president and came just two days before an embattled President Obama gives his State of the Union speech, the timing of such editing is highly inappropriate and unusual.


CBS should explain why it felt it appropriate to edit out a high profile senator accusing the President of the United States of targeting his politcal enemies. These are strong accusations leveled at the president, and CBS’s viewers deserve to hear them, yet strangely they were not.

[Ryan Ruck]

Ted Cruz Wins Presidential Straw Poll At Republican Leadership Conference

June 1, 2014

Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has won another straw poll, boosting his national profile and elevating his name among potential 2016 presidential contenders.

The firebrand freshman senator and tea party favorite was among a handful of 2016 hopefuls speaking at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans this week.

Cruz finished in first place in the annual conference's presidential straw poll at 30.33%. Dr. Ben Carson, a Fox News commentator and conservative activist, finished in second with 29.38% while Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, was third with 10.43%.

Fox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Governor Rick Perry rounded out the top five, at 5.06% and 4.90%, respectively.

Neither Carson nor Paul spoke at the conference, but their support was a show of confidence by the traditionally more conservative crowd. The annual meeting of activists features of who's who of big-name Republican politicians. It is an important appearance for potential presidential candidates to make.

More moderate Republicans also skipped the conference, but many fared much worse in the straw poll. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie came in dead last with 1.11% while Florida’s former Gov. Jeb Bush and current Sen. Marco Rubio and came in seventh and eighth at 4.42% and 3.32 %, respectively.

Cruz's address was among the most popular. He was interrupted several times by cheers and standing ovations - especially when he told the crowd he was "convinced" the Republican Party would retake control of Congress in the midterm elections this fall.

Cruz won the Values Voter summit's presidential straw poll last fall, and came in second to Sen. Paul in this year's straw poll at the big Conservative Political Action Conference.

The potential 2016 presidential candidate said that across the country, people tell him that they are scared – of losing their freedom, losing their constitutional rights, and bankrupting their children and grandchildren.

"There is an urgency facing this country – there is an urgency in politics unlike anything we've ever seen," he said, arguing those fears were driving a new movement.

"America is waking up. We are seeing revival, we are seeing renewal, and together – mark my words – we are going to turn this nation around," he said.

Cruz highlighted his past battles with what he regards as the Washington elites, Democrat and Republican, in the fight over drones, gun rights and filibusters. But he cited a "tsunami" of populist power, a wave of grassroots support as the core of those victories.

"Thank you!" he exclaimed to a shout of thanks from the audience. "Nobody cares what any politician in Washington says. Power in politics, sovereignty in America is with we the people, and that is the path to turning this country around, empowering the people."

That wave will unseat Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, and force Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, out, he said to applause and cheers. A conservative Democrat, Landrieu faces a tough re-election this fall, and the crowd of Louisiana Republicans is eager to unseat her and strip the Democrats of their majority status.

Sounding like a candidate on the trail, Gov. Perry took the occasion to tout his record in Texas, on everything from job creation to reducing nitrous oxide emissions.

“The best ideas can be found in the states, where innovative policies get replicated all the time,” said the two-term governor. “And I have never been afraid to borrow good ideas, regardless of where they come from. No political party has a monopoly on good ideas.”

He argued the party should be the same way.

“If we are to win a majority in both houses of Congress and take back the White House, we must again be the party of big ideas,” he added later. “Americans are looking for leadership that transcends partisanship.”

Former Pennsylvania senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum also gave a passionate speech that called for a return to conservative values and slammed those who would compromise in order to win elections – a veiled swipe he has made before at moderate Republicans, like Gov. Christie.

"The problem with the Republican Party is that we have people in the party who don't believe in the very foundational principles of our party," said Santorum, going on to criticize the party's "moderate" funders, an "expert political class" from "dark-blue communities" in major cities.

"We talk to job creators, not job holders – and ladies and gentlemen, there are a lot more job holders than there are job creators," he said, with a message of economic populism that pushed the GOP to be "pro-growth and pro-worker," not just pro-business.

Santorum finished in ninth place in the straw poll, at 2.37%.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and business magnate Donald Trump were also in attendance at the conference - although none of them were included in the straw poll.

Former presidential candidate Herman Cain also spoke, and even hinted that he may run for president again.

Calling the Obama administration "a period of scandals and a crisis of leadership," the businessman and radio host told the crowd to "stay informed. The stupid people are out-voting us."

At one time the leading candidate in the 2012 Republican field, Cain also pushed back against the notion that Republicans don't reach out to minorities – citing himself as an example.

"What am I, chopped liver?" he exclaimed.

Cain was also not featured in the straw poll.

[Ryan Ruck]

Sen. Cruz Formally Gives Up Canadian Citizenship

June 10, 2014

Canada-born U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has made good on a promise to renounce his birth country's citizenship — doing so amid speculation he could make a run at the White House in 2016.

Spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said Cruz's action became official May 14 and that Texas' junior senator received written confirmation at his home in Houston on Tuesday. She said the tea-party-backed Republican "is pleased to have the process finalized."

"Being a U.S. Senator representing Texas, it makes sense he should be only an American citizen," Frazier said in an email.

Cruz, 43, was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1970, while his parents were working in the oil business there. His mother, Eleanor, is from Delaware, while his father, Rafael, is a Cuban became a U.S. citizen in 2005.

Though he has been in office only about 18 months, Cruz helped lead last year's partial government shutdown and has become a conservative grass-roots champion.

Amid questions last August about his eligibility to be president should he decide to run, Cruz released his birth certificate to the Dallas Morning News — and said then that he was surprised to learn he was a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen.

Upon learning that he'd received it at birth, he promised to formally give it up. Months then passed before Cruz hired an immigration attorney to help him with the process.

Frazier provided a copy of Cruz's Certificate of Renunciation, which certifies that Rafael Edward Cruz "has formally renounced Canadian citizenship and pursuant to the Citizenship Act will cease to be a citizen."

Still, the citizenship issue could still be a thorny one for Cruz. Some conservatives claimed President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and thus not eligible to be U.S. president. Obama is an American citizen; his father was Kenyan, his mother American.

The U.S. Constitution says only a "natural born Citizen" may be president. Legal scholars, however, generally agree the description covers foreign-born children of U.S. parents.

Previous foreign-born Americans — notably Republicans John McCain and George Romney — have run for president with some mention, but no serious challenges, of their eligibility.

Cruz, who has made frequent trips to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the first three states to hold presidential contests, has refused to say if he plans to run for president.

Asked about his presidential eligibility at the Texas Republican Convention last week, Cruz said, "I've disclosed all the relevant facts. As you know, I was born in Canada. My mother was a U.S. citizen at the time of my birth. She was a U.S. citizen from birth so, under U.S. law, I'm an American citizen by birth."

"Beyond that," he added, "I will leave the legal consequences of those facts to others to worry about."

[Ryan Ruck]

Ted Cruz Tests Waters, Meets with Iowa Grassroots Leaders

August 9, 2014

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) met with some of the most influential grassroots conservative leaders and activists in Iowa on Saturday as he tested the waters for a potential 2016 run.

Cruz spoke at the Iowa State Fair and the Family Leadership Summit. According to Steve Deace, the conservative Iowa talk radio host, Cruz met with various grassroots leaders who would be needed to win the nation's first-in-the-nation caucuses.

Deace told Breitbart News that many Iowans think Cruz would be the perfect presidential candidate, frequently telling him that they want a "fighter" like Cruz who is unafraid to take on Democrats and the GOP establishment. Deace compared Cruz to Clint Eastwood -- after candidates who were "nice" did nothing to stop America's decline, the country, especially conservative primary voters, may want a vigilante sheriff like Cruz.

At the Family Leadership Summit, Cruz discussed some of the many brawls he has been in on behalf of conservatives and some of the victories conservatives have had on Second Amendment and religious liberty issues. He vowed to repeal "every word" of Obamacare and abolish the IRS, while denouncing Common Core. He emphasized that the House's border bill, which prevented President Barack Obama from using federal funds to enact more executive amnesty, is a deterrent against more illegal immigration.

As he said at the state fair, Cruz blasted Obama's foreign policy by talking about the "the Obama diet" that he said is popular in D.C.

"It's very simple," he said. "You just let Putin eat your lunch every day.”

After Cruz spoke at the Des Moines Register soapbox event, he reportedly called Obama “an absentee president" for not visiting the border when Obama was in Texas fundraising and said he should stop playing golf during various crises.

“I think the president should actually stand up and do his job as commander in chief, should spend less time on the golf course and more time doing the job to which he was elected,” Cruz said, according to ABC News.

At the fair, Cruz was wowed by the famous butter cow, showed his support for Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst, and enjoyed a pork chop on a stick. The Iowa State Fair, he said, is one place where "pork doesn't bankrupt America."

Other potential presidential candidates like Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and even Ben Carson will be playing in the so-called invisible primary in Iowa this month.

Meeting w grassroots leaders from across the State of Iowa before speaking at The Family Leadership Summit #FLS2014 pic.twitter.com/2XNzAb6tju

— Team Cruz (@TeamTedCruz) August 9, 2014

Wow, a cow made of butter. My girls would love it. In fact, the first sentence Caroline ever said was "I like butter" pic.twitter.com/TzBZJmVFKT

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 9, 2014

Just cast my kernel for @JoniErnst at the Iowa State Fair. Iowa, we need Joni in the US Senate! pic.twitter.com/zwNYuwWkVZ

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 9, 2014

Nice to get out of DC & enjoy a famous pork chop on-a-stick @ Iowa State Fair―where the pork doesn’t bankrupt America pic.twitter.com/MZt2DvdHAd

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 9, 2014

[Ryan Ruck]

Cruz Clinches Straw Poll Gold

September 27, 2014

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz won the Value Voters Summit presidential straw poll on Saturday.

The crowd burst onto applause on Saturday, as Family Research Council President Tony Perkins announced that Cruz won 25 percent of votes at the annual Washington conference.

The victory is a big victory to the Republican firebrand and Tea Party icon, coming just a day after he drew standing ovations with a religious and emotional speech that blasted ObamaCare, congressional Democrats and called for Republicans to take over the White House in 2016.

Cruz also won the straw poll in 2013.

Coming in second was neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a political novice who has a large following in conservative circles but said earlier this week that there is a “strong” likelihood that he would run for president. He won 20 percent of the votes.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) came in third, with 12 percent of the vote.

As a signal of Carson’s popularity at the summit, the former Johns Hopkins University neurosurgeon came in first in the polling for vice president, winning 22 percent of the votes.

Cruz was the runner up in that contest, with 14 percent. Third was Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) — who earned surprising admiration in his Friday evening address, despite his low showing in recent polls of potential 2016 contenders — with 11 percent of the vote.

The annual Washington summit is considered a right of passage for prospective Republican presidential candidates, and served as an opportunity for aspirants to make some of their most direct pitches to social conservatives before announcing their ambitions next year.

The notable absence from the winners' list of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — another senator who is considered to be strongly eyeing a presidential run — is a sign of pervasive skepticism from the religious right.

Paul’s libertarian leanings have won him supporters among the young and tech-savvy, but he has yet to make inroads among Christian conservatives. The poor showing comes despite his attempts on Friday to appeal to the summit’s religious leanings.

The summit also asks participants which issues they care about most deeply.

“Protecting religious liberty” easily won that contest with 39 percent of the vote, followed by abortion and “protecting natural marriage.”