LYNCHBURG, Va. — Ever-confident Republican Sen. Ted Cruz launched his presidential campaign Monday with the goal of transforming his cult following among Tea Party conservatives into a broad mandate to represent the GOP on the 2016 ballot.
The 44-year-old Texas lawmaker launched his bid in Central Virginia on the campus of Liberty University, the nation’s largest Christian college, with a red-state appeal for “courageous conservatives” to join him in restoring the “promise” of America. But in a subtle acknowledgment that winning the Republican nomination, let alone the presidency, will take more than vowing to repeal Obamacare, Cruz sought to establish a personal connection with voters.
Cruz’s 30-minute speech to an engaged crowd of 10,000 Liberty students hardly broke with the Republican’s standard fare of aggressive rhetoric — far from it. He promised to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and “finally, finally, finally” secure the southern border with Mexico, among other uncompromising fare.
Yet in what aides signaled was a deliberate move by the principled yet tactical politician, Cruz used his address to emphasize the universality of his American experience, one that cuts across political, gender and class lines. The senator discussed his emotionally trying upbringing as the son of a Cuban refugee father and pioneering computer programmer mother — emphasizing how his Delaware-native mother advanced at work during a period when women were discouraged from pursuing careers.
Cruz’s wife, a high-powered finance executive at Goldman Sachs in Houston, where the family lives, was on hand for the senator’s presidential launch, along with his two young daughters. Women vote in greater numbers than men and have generally spurned the GOP in recent White House contests. That is a familiar problem to GOP professionals, but it could be magnified if former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton turns out to be the Democratic nominee, as is widely expected.
Here’s how Cruz described his wife Monday: “…[S]he goes on to a career in business, excelling and rising to the highest pinnacles. And then, Heidi becomes my wife and my very best friend in the world. Heidi becomes an incredible mom to our two precious little girls, Caroline and Catherine, the joys and loves of our life.”
Cruz has highlighted the women in his life in previous speeches, although never with this sense of priority and under the national klieg lights.
The deliberate move to expand Cruz’s allure beyond the Republican base is not just a needed for a general election win. It’s also necessary if the senator hopes to be the nominee when the party holds its convention in Cleveland, Ohio next year.
Republican primary voters factor several elements into their vote, including electability. As a group, primary voters comprise more than simply the grassroots of the party. That’s why the so-called “most conservative” candidate often loses the nomination battle. This could be even more true this year, with the GOP fielding as many as half a dozen top-tier candidates, including senators and former and sitting governors. But team Cruz likes where its candidate begins the 2016 contest.
Comparing the primary fight to geographical bracket seeding in the NCAA college basketball tournament, a Cruz advisor said the senator has among the best opportunities to compete for the most influential blocs of GOP voters in the “evangelical, libertarian and Tea Party” brackets. The advisor conceded that support for Cruz, who was famously denounced by five-term Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as a “wacko bird” in 2013, is weak in the GOP Establishment bracket. But the Cruz campaign doesn’t seem overly concerned, citing the crowded nature of that segment of candidates.
Asked to discuss his chances against the deep primary field, a typically brash Cruz told reporters after announcing his White House bid inside Liberty University’s Vines Center arena that it comes down to “faith” in America. “It’s coming from the people. Washington won’t turn us around, but what will turn us around is millions of courageous conservatives who are inspired to reignite the promise of America,” he said.
Cruz has served in the Senate for just 27 months. Though he has rocketed to conservative stardom and a legitimate shot at the Oval Office, he trails other Republican contenders in early public opinion polls. His ability to raise enough money to finance a competitive presidential campaign is unproven. Even conservatives who agree with him wonder if he’s too divisive to win a general election, regardless of whom the Democratic nominee is.
There’s also the question of Cruz’s level of experience coming on the heels of Obama’s eight years.
The president was 45 years old and midway through his first term in the Senate when he launched his presidential bid in 2007. His only previous governing experience was serving in the Illinois Senate, and Republicans have repeatedly derided him as a “community organizer” who blundered into laws like the Affordable Care Act because he had never run anything and had no idea what he was doing.
Whether one has anything to do with the other, Cruz’s competitors are going to do their best to tag him with unflattering comparisons to Obama among Republicans.
“A freshman senator who makes a good speech but has never run so much as a lemonade stand before? Didn’t we just try that?” said a GOP operative associated with another Republican contender. “He’s never run anything except his mouth.”
In the coming weeks, Cruz is scheduled to pick up the pace on the trail. Still undetermined is whether campaigning will trump committee work and voting in the Senate, as it has for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is expected join Cruz as a candidate later in the spring.
Cruz is due to travel the country raising money, with a big event scheduled for March 31 in Houston. Advisors said they expect to raise $1 million over the next seven days, an important goal to the senator. The campaign’s ability to bring in that kind of money in its first week was factored into the scheduling of the launch of the campaign.
The Cruz team is confident that his record as Texas’ solicitor general, his work in the Senate, and his personal story distinguishes him both Republican competitors and Obama circa 2007.
Traditionally, a candidate will file papers with the Federal Election Commission to “explore” a presidential race. Doing so allows candidates to raise money and campaign without formally declaring for the race. Once Cruz determined he was ready and could run the campaign he envisioned, he saw no point in playing coy with the voters and wasting time with an exploratory phase.
“We have a path to victory,” Cruz advisor Jason Miller said. “We have the infrastructure in place. We’re ready to go.”
