“Because everyone knows exactly where he stands.”
That’s the voiceover from Ted Cruz’s first round of television ads currently running in Iowa. The claim fits with the image of a rock solid conservative who doesn’t waver under pressure that the Texas senator has cultivated, successfully, on his swift climb up the political ladder to his position as a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination. But is it true? Not necessarily to the extent that both Cruz’s supporters and detractors might believe.
Cruz hasn’t moderated on politically-charged issues since launching his 2016 campaign last March. If anything, Cruz has hardened his stance on immigration, trade and other policies that matter to the coalition of conservative voters he views as his ticket to the nomination. But underneath Cruz’s carefully crafted persona of principled inflexibility is a pragmatist who continues to change his mind on key issues and make other tactical adjustments that serve his broader political agenda.
The Cruz campaign disagrees with that characterization. “Sen. Cruz knows what he believes; but sometimes circumstances require policy changes,” Rick Tyler, the senator’s national campaign spokesman, said Wednesday during a telephone interview.
Cruz has challenged Republican leaders in Washington at nearly every turn, going so far as to call Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky a liar on the floor of the chamber. His Senate voting record has consistently been rated among the most conservative in Congress since he was elected in 2012. Both elements are central to Cruz’s brand and among the reasons his supporters are so enthusiastic about his White House bid.
But as the competition for the GOP crown heats up ahead of first votes in Iowa on Feb. 1, Cruz opponents are likely to point out that he’s backed down under pressure from the right flank of his party and otherwise altered longstanding positions multiple times. In June, Cruz abandoned support for Trade Promotion Authority; just last week he dropped support for increasing the amount of H1-B immigration visas made available to high-skilled workers.
And, while Cruz has been a strong proponent of beefing up border security and withholding citizenship from illegal immigrants, his tone when discussing the topic has changed since Republican front-runner Donald Trump became a fixture atop the polls. Before Trump, Cruz emphasized his support for streamlining and encouraging legal immigration. Post-Trump, Cruz has highlighted his opposition to birthright citizenship, itself the product of a flip-flop that is a couple of years old.
Cruz’s occasional changes of heart are hardly unique among Republicans vying for the nomination, nor are they rampant. But Cruz’s central line of attack against his competitors is that they all talk a good game but can’t be trusted as much as him to tow the conservative line if elected president. That makes Cruz’s flexibility on issues potentially riskier, as it could undercut the main theme driving his candidacy if skillfully exploited by an opponent.
“This stuff matters,” a strategist for an opposing campaign said. “If you set yourself up to be holier than thou and the purest of the pure, then you better be that, or else you look like a total hypocrite, which is deadliest sin in politics.”
Cruz regularly says that the only way Republicans are going to retake the White House is by nominating a bold conservative who doesn’t run to the center in the general election. Tyler, Cruz’s spokesman, said the campaign believes that Republicans haven’t lost five out of the last six presidential popular votes because the party’s nominee was too conservative. Rather, it’s because he wasn’t someone like Cruz — a committed conservative with the ability to communicate a dynamic vision.
Operating under that strategic framework hasn’t stopped Cruz from employing tactical ambiguity on complex issues with what could be interpreted as an eye toward winning votes in either the primary or general elections.
On immigration, Cruz refuses to take a position on what to do with the estimated 11-12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. That equivocation could give him valuable latitude next fall against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. On national security, Cruz has uncharacteristically attempted to stake out middle ground — in this case between libertarians and traditional GOP hawks as part of a primary campaign strategy that relies on coalescing all factions of the conservative base.
“I have been encouraged over and over again by the support we’re receiving from men and women across the country, by the support we’re receiving at the grassroots as conservatives are uniting,” Cruz said this week, when asked by reporters to explain if his compromise approach to foreign policy is politically sustainable. “I’ll tell you, conservatives care about the Bill of Rights, care about protecting the privacy of law abiding citizens and also care about protecting our national security.”
Cruz ranks second in the Examiner’s presidential power rankings. He has emerged as a real threat to win the nomination and is likely to receive more scrutiny in the weeks ahead. Trump, the New York businessman and reality television star, still paces the field in many state and national polls.
Cruz is embroiled in an almost daily clash with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, possibly his chief rival for the nomination. Just since mid last week, the two 44-year-old Cuban Americans have fought over immigration and national security. Rubio and his campaign team haven’t been shy about highlghting Cruz inconsistencies, and their head-to-head could test just how vulnerable the Texan is on this front.
