According to The New York Times, Cruz raised questions about whether Trump has the “judgment” to be president.
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“We’re doing well with everybody”, he said, noting that he’s puling support from tea party activists and evangelical Christians in a state where several influential Iowa conservatives have recently endorsed Texas Sen.
“I don’t think there’s anything that could be worse for Republicans than Trump being our nominee”, says Doug Heye, a Republican strategist who has served as a former deputy chief of staff for Eric Cantor and a Republican National Committee official.
But what’s improving Cruz’s chances the most is probably Trump’s continued polling strength.
“Both of them I like and respect”, Cruz told about 70 supporters.
In turn, Cruz had been the only notable Republican candidate whom Trump has refused to insult as his rallies. He has challenged both sides of the aisle.
“For whatever reason, the dynamics are such today that it seems like people are moving on, they’re looking, saying what is that fresh, what is that bold, what is that courageous leadership?” “I believe gravity will bring both of those campaigns down” and “the lion’s share of their supporters come to us”. But a Monmouth University survey that relied only on registered voter rolls has Cruz with the lead: 24% to 19%.
Cruz, who has moved up in some polls behind frontrunner Trump, may be concerned about the impact of the Times’ report. Trump fired back Friday morning with a series of tweeted taunts, breaking a long-held détente between the two. At an event Tuesday on Syrian refugees, Cruz said he disagreed with Trump’s new plan to block Muslims from entering the U.S.
“[Ted Cruz] should not make statements behind closed doors to his bosses, he should bring them out in the open”, Trump wrote on Twitter.
And in Des Moines last Saturday, Cruz announced the “Cruz Crew Strike Force” and opening of “Camp Cruz”, rented apartments to lodge hundreds of volunteers from across the country coming to campaign for Cruz in Iowa. It’s hard to tell how that will matter – John Edwards did well in 2004 with similar inexperience – but it could make Cruz more vulnerable to unexpected trouble than typical candidates are.
“It is awesome how eager the media is, I mean, the number one question I get, day in and day out, is ‘Please attack Donald Trump, ‘” Cruz said.
Over dinners and phone calls, Perkins has become one of Cruz’s few defenders in a city that harbors significant ill-will for his scorched-earth Republicanism. “I think Cruz not attacking Trump has to do with the fact that he knows Trump has a ceiling, he thinks he is not going to last and Cruz wants to be there to pick up the pieces, it’s very calculated”.
It’s been a slow and steady climb to the top for GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz.
The problem for Cruz, said Kondik, is that gaming out a race with more than a dozen candidates is ridiculously complicated.
But Trump gave him an out: “But I understand it, oil pays him a lot of money”.
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“All the candidates sort of recognize that if you knock down Trump it may help a candidate other than themselves”. In a two-person race, it’s a zero-sum game.
