Former California Gov. Pete Wilson endorsed Ted Cruz for president during the state’s GOP convention in San Francisco Saturday afternoon.
“I hope the Republican choice in California will be, and I feel confident it will be, Sen. Ted Cruz,” Wilson said at a luncheon address.
“Ted’s got keen intelligence, extensive knowlege and his energy and belief in all that America should be and can be make him our strongest champion to articulate and win what is at stake in this most important of elections,” Wilson added. “Never has the California Republican primary election been so critical to the future of our nation. ”
Wilson said the GOP nominee must be trusted to nominate conservative judges to the Supreme Court and defend U.S. interests overseas.
“The next president of the U.S. will have as many as five Supreme Court vacancies in his or her first term. We know what kind of justices Hillary Clinton would nominate. Heaven knows what justices Donald Trump would pick. What we can know is that Ted Cruz will choose judges who will interpret the law and not legislate it,” Wilson said.
The former GOP leader, who served the Golden State during the 1990s, is known for backing what critics considered harsh measures to block undocumented immigrants from receiving benefits in California. The ensuing backlash and helped end Wilson’s presidential ambitions and career and turn California from a presidential swing-state to a solidly blue Democratic bulwark as the state’s large and growing Hispanic population lined up behind Democrats.
Wilson defended Cruz’s immigration stances.
“He is not anti-immigration. He, as am I, is for the legal immigration that has made this nation great. He is hardly anti-Latino,” said Wilson, to laughter.
Wilson, a former U.S. senator, also warned attendees against nominating a candidate who could hurt party’s brand, pushing back on claims that Cruz would prove a poor a general election candidate as Trump.
“We cannot afford a Republican nominee that brings us down-ticket defamation of our 2014 hard-won games,” Wilson said. “We can’t afford a nominee in 2016 who is losing women voters at a far greater rate than Hillary clinton is losing men and millennials.”
The endorsement comes more than a month before California voters head to the polls. Cruz, a constitutional lawyer from Texas, trails GOP front-runner Donald Trump in California primary polls. A RealClearPolitics average has the New York businessman up 17 points over Cruz.
A Trump win in California and the haul of delegates it would bring, would assure the controverial celebrity businessman of the GOP presidential nomination.
