Though Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul share similar views on both domestic and foreign policy, the national media seem more keen on Paul as the two position themselves to compete for the Republican presidential nomination.
“There’s a more sharp skepticism toward Cruz,” said Salena Zito, a conservative columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I think it’s because of the shutdown [of some government services over a 2013 budget dispute in which Cruz took a leading role]. I think a lot of reporters look at him more skeptically because they thought that was something led by him not just in the Senate but in the House and they did not take that shutdown seriously.”
That Cruz faces an overwhelmingly hostile media was made clear last week, when he made his campaign official at Liberty University. Though students at the Lynchburg, Va.-based Christian school were required to attend the Texas Republican’s speech as part of the school’s annual convocation program, he was well received by the crowd, which often applauded and stood to show approval. Still, several news outlets ran stories noting that attendance was mandatory. “Liberty students would have been fined if they skipped Ted Cruz’s speech,” read a headline on the Huffington Post. The New York Daily News and The Week had similar headlines.
The same day, the New Yorker ran an article that described Cruz, who is part Cuban, as “uppity.” The word was removed after critics noted the racially charged connotation it carries.
Editorial boards at the Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal all weighed in on Cruz the next day, each writing negative editorials on his fresh candidacy. The Journal, which leans right, said Cruz as the Republican nominee would be “a dream come true” to likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Kentucky’s junior senator, on the other hand, benefited from some of Cruz’s negative press. Rand Paul is expected to announce his own candidacy for the White House soon, and in an interview shortly after Cruz’s announcement he told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, “If you look at our voting records, you’ll find that we’re very, very similar.”
That interview was picked up by Buzzfeed, which published it under the headline, “The best quotes from RandPaul’s response to Ted Cruz running for president.”
During Cruz’s campaign announcement, a few students showed up wearing “Stand With Rand” shirts, a pro-Paul slogan. ABC News published photos of the students, saying they provided an “awkward backdrop” for Cruz.
The New York Times on Thursday published a letter from Paul to potential supporters in Kentucky, where Paul is expected to make his own campaign announcement soon. According to the Times, the letter asks people to show up to his announcement. “That’s a big contrast to how Senator Ted Cruz of Texas handled his announcement, which took place at a Liberty University ceremony in Lynchburg, Va., where attendance was mandatory,” the Times story said.
In October, Paul, who has aggressively courted young and minority voters and worked with Democratic Sen. Cory Booker on justice reform, was dubbed by Time magazine as “the most interesting man in politics.”
One national political reporter, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said that the news media have ambivalent feelings toward Cruz. “I strongly suspect the national news media rolls its collective eyes at some of his more aggressive claims,” the reporter said, referencing a recent interview wherein Cruz likened his views on climate change to Galileo’s confrontation with the consensus of his own time. “On the other hand, Cruz has mastered the art of the sound bite and presents his campaign in such a way that it’s interesting and fun to cover.”
A second reporter who covers politics in Texas said national media are also mindful of Cruz’s brief time in Congress, during which he angered many of his colleagues with a 2013 impasse over Obamacare that led to a brief furlough of non-essential government employees, which caused extreme consternation in Washington. (Though Paul’s role in the partial shutdown was less dramatic, he stands by his vote, joking in stump speeches that the most frequent question he receives from Kentucky constituents is, “Why did you open it back up?”)
“The national media seem to cover Cruz primarily through the prism of his time in Congress, which makes sense,” the Texas reporter said. “He’s made few friends in Washington — something he’ll happily tell you — and that shows in the coverage in D.C. While taking into account how polarizing his congressional tenure has been, Texas reporters also keep in mind his come-from-behind victory in the 2012 Senate race, which is probably informing the coverage of his presidential campaign here in Texas more than it is in D.C.”
Jennifer Rubin, a Republican blogger for the Washington Post who has written critically of both Paul and Cruz, said the discrepancy in coverage may have have to do with a liberal bias among reporters in general.
“Because they share Rand Paul’s isolationist foreign policy the mainstream media is less critical on that point,” Rubin said. “I do think they find Cruz to be a GOP caricature which they use to tar all Republicans.”
