NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — A trio of Republicans looking for a breakthrough made their case to conservative activists Thursday afternoon in speeches that highlighted both opportunities and vulnerabilities as they prepare to run for president in 2016.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, once an early frontrunner for his party’s 2016 nomination, has been dragged down by scandal at home and the distrust of GOP voters in the early presidential primary states. But Christie’s blunt charismatic style during an occasionally hostile question and answer session with conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham on the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference allowed the governor to remind activists why they once viewed him as the future.
“If I decide to run for president, I’m not worried about what polls say 21 months before we elect a president of the United States,” Christie said when asked by Ingraham about his cratering poll numbers. “If I decide to run, let me tell you one thing: I will run a hard, fighting campaign where I will fight for the hardworking taxpayers of this country; and, I’ll take my chances on me, I’ve done pretty well so far.”
Next up was Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO whose only real political experience is getting pasted by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in a 2010 Senate race.
But Fiorina brought the crowd to its feet for the first time in CPAC’s Thursday afternoon session with a cogent, detailed attack on likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her record as secretary of state under President Obama. Foreign policy has quickly emerged as a motivating issue of the nascent GOP presidential primary campaign, and Fiorina spoke to that despite a lack of any government experience.
Many Republican primary voters are likely to view Fiorina as a curiosity at best given her thin political record. After all, she has never won an election. But Fiorina’s articulate attacks on Obama administration policies, littered with red meat zingers, have left conservatives and likely GOP primary voters wanting more.
“I have met Vladimir Putin and I know that his ambition will not be deterred by a gimmicky, red ‘reset’ button,” Fiorina said. “Mrs. Clinton, please, name an accomplishment.”
Fiorina was followed by Sen. Ted Cruz, and perhaps more than anyone else to grace the CPAC stage on Opening Day of the conference, the Texas Republican owned the room.
Despite Cruz’s popularity with grassroots conservatives, however, he continually trails in most presidential primary polls, sitting in eighth place with just 5 percent support in the RealClearPolitics average of the most recent surveys. The GOP base matters and can’t be ignored, but they still tend to constitute fewer voters in a primary than more pragmatic, less dogmatic Republicans.
Still, Cruz appears content for now to build his support among the grassroots that identify with his brand of brash, insurgent conservatism. In his speech, he called for a populist uprising that holds Republicans equally accountable for their actions with Democrats.
“Talk is cheap,” Cruz said.
Asked by Fox News host Sean Hannity in a question and answer session following his speech for his top five agenda items should he be elected president, Cruz listed repealing Obamacare; abolishing the IRS; stopping runaway Environmental Protection Agency regulations; defending the Constitution and restoring U.S. leadership around the world.
“We all know that in a campaign, every candidate comes up and tells you: ‘I’m the most conservative guy that ever lived,'” Cruz said. “If you’re really a conservative, you will have been in the trenches, you will bear the scars. You will have been fighting the fight.”
