As far back as November, Ted Cruz began using the hashtag “#TrusTed.” Now, “TrusTed” is often used in Cruz’s ads, on banners behind him during events, on his campaign bus, and elsewhere.
When he began using the phrase, it was hard to understand why he would focus so much on building trust. Hillary Clinton is the candidate known to have trust issues with Americans, not Cruz.
Months later, it makes more sense.
Marco Rubio has been racking up endorsements from his Senate colleagues. But to date, not one sitting senator has endorsed Cruz. That is still the case today.
For some, that contributed to Cruz’s D.C.-outsider appeal rather than a trust issue.
Many of Cruz’s opponents had attempted to knock him on the trust issue, but it didn’t really seem to stick quite the way it does now.
That began to change when, after the Iowa caucus, Ben Carson slammed Cruz’s campaign for sending emails to supporters right before the caucuses saying that Carson had dropped out. Carson called it a “dirty trick.” Cruz apologized and called it a mistake, attributing the error to a “CNN post saying that Dr. Carson was not carrying on to New Hampshire and South Carolina.”
On Monday, the Cruz campaign again found itself defending its actions. Cruz’s then-communications director Rick Tyler apologized for spreading a link to what turned out to be a post falsely stating Rubio criticized the Bible. Tyler was fired later Monday over that incident.
Taken together, these have begun to build a narrative questioning Cruz’s integrity and trustworthiness. And his campaign appears to be working actively to combat it.
In addition to the “TrusTed” messaging, on Tuesday, Cruz supporter Rep. Justin Amash penned an article defending Cruz and highlighting his bona fides, including his standing up to Washington and defending the Constitution. The article is aptly titled, “Why I Trust Ted Cruz.”
Cruz released an ad last week that ended with the narrator saying, “We cannot trust Donald Trump with these serious decisions.” Before that ad was released, Trump attacked Cruz on the trust issue.
In another ad in Nevada, Cruz says, “…if you trust me with your vote, I will day and night to return full control of Nevada’s lands to its rightful owners…”
Cruz’s campaign seems to be both aware of the problem and working early to combat it. One can probably expect a lot more trust-related messaging.
