MILWAUKEE — Ted Cruz on Tuesday foreshadowed his coming clash with Marco Rubio, subtly but unmistakable tweaking his rival for the Republican nomination both during and after the latest televised debate.
During the two-hour prime time face-off, Cruz proposed eliminating federal sugar subsidies as way to reduce government spending and free up money for the Pentagon. The Texas senator never mentioned his counterpart from Florida by name. To the untrained eye, it was a politically reasonable suggestion that allowed Cruz to score points with Republican voters — and particularly those conservatives who deride corporate tax breaks as crony capitalism.
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“I mentioned the 25 programs that I put out today that I would eliminate them. Among them are corporate welfare like sugar subsidies,” Cruz said, in the middle of the debate.
Dialed-in political observers everywhere, including supporters of Cruz and Rubio, understood exactly what the Texan was doing — highlighting a potential political liability for Rubio with the Republican base. Rubio has positioned himself as a small government, free market conservative, and his Senate voting record reflects that. The glaring exception is his support for sugar subsidies, in deference to an industry that is a key driver of Florida’s economy.
Rubio let Cruz’ remarks fall harmlessly to the floor without comment, and the exchange went largely forgotten. But the Texan swiped at Rubio again post-debate, cablecast by Fox Business Network and co-hosted by the Wall Street Journal. In a television interview, Cruz, while not explicitly calling Rubio a “moderate,” observed that Rubio was competing in the “moderate lane” based on his rivalry with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
The Rubio campaign declined to directly engage the Cruz attacks. But the senator’s team signaled that he is prepared to navigate a more heated campaign — and expects to give as good as he gets.
“There’s not question that as we move closer to voting the number of contrasts are going to increase and it’s something that we fully anticipate — we’re fully prepared for it,” Rubio senior advisor Todd Harris said. “There are a lot of contrasts with other candidates that we look forward to making.”
That includes pressing the case that Rubio is running as a conservative, but one who can garner votes from Republicans who consider themselves more mainstream. “Marco is more conservative than 98 percent of members of Congress,” Rubio spokesman Alex Conant said. “He’s 100 percent pro-life, ‘A’ rating from the NRA, voted against big budget deals, voted everytime and anytime that he could to repeal Obamacare. He’ll take a backseat to nobody on his conservative credentials.”
The Cruz campaign did not dispute the interpretation that its candidate was targeting Rubio with his remarks about sugar subsidies and suggestions that he is too moderate for the GOP base. “I’ll let his comments stand for themselves,” Cruz senior communications advisor Jason Miller said. “Our focus with these debates is really to talk about his vision, his message.”
The move by Cruz during the fourth televised GOP presidential debate, and before a packed house of Republican voters in the Milwaukee Theater, amounts to the opening salvo in what could ultimately be the two-man race that decides the 2016 nomination. The two rival Cuban American senators, 44, have separated themselves from the rest of a crowded field, and how find themselves alone as they nip at the heels of front-runners Ben Carson and Donald Trump.
Rubio and Cruz rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings.
Their campaigns have studiously avoided discussing the prospect of outpacing Carson and Trump for a head-to-head matchup for the GOP crown. Each operation has been run methodically from the outset, with the strategic goal of peaking at the right time, and not before. First votes, in the Iowa caucuses, are set for Feb. 1. “Other folks might come into debates thinking that it’s come down to one-on-one matchups, and such. But for us, it’s always been about talking about our message,” Miller insisted.
Still, privately, they acknowledge the possibility and have begun to prepare, as Cruz’ actions Tuesday night revealed.
Rubio emerged unscathed, and Cruz narrowly avoided his own near-“oops” moment when he said he would close down five cabinet agencies but only named four (he said “Commerce Department” twice.) But as one Republican operative who is supporting Rubio grudgingly acknowledged, the subject of sugar subsidies is “now out there in a new way.”
