Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Cruz) announced his presidential bid in a midnight tweet. He gave his first official campaign speech at Liberty University with about 12,000 students in attendance.
While Cruz has said that his election strategy in 2016 will be to reunite evangelicals and Reagan Democrats with the Republican Party, he told Red Alert Politics Monday that he also plans to build “an army of young people” to carry him to victory.
And Cruz, the first official candidate of the 2016 cycle, believes that there is no better time to reach millennials than right now.
“Young people went 70-30 for Barack Obama in the last two elections. But I believe that there is an incredible opportunity with young people in 2016. A great many young people are right now demoralized and disillusioned by the false promises that President Obama gave them. They have been impacted by coming out of school at a time of stagnation where they are finding it harder and harder to get jobs,” Cruz said during a phone call with reporters and bloggers.
“There young people across this country with faded posters of ‘Hope and Change’ on their wall who are still sleeping in their parent’s basement. And they have paid the price for Obamacare. One of the simplest ways to understand Obamacare is that it is a massive wealth transfer from young, healthy people to everybody else. We have a tremendous opportunity with young people.”
Cruz said that one of the ways he plans to take advantage of this opportunity is through social media, like his Twitter announcement.
“Social media is an incredible tool to connect with young people, to energize them, to empower them,” he said.
Cruz is ahead of the rest of the potential GOP presidential candidates when it comes to social media measurements, though he falls behind the reach of likely Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton, according to Fox News.
Cruz did not list any other specific ways he hopes to reach out to young people, but told bloggers that he plans to run “an energetic, passionate campaign that inspires young people.”
“I believe the key to doing so is having a bold, positive, hopeful vision and also communicating that in a way that has some fun,” he said.
“If Republicans carry the youth vote, we will win in 2016,” Cruz continued. “And I intend to work hard to energize an army of young people who want to reignite the promise of America.”
