Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Thursday won the highly coveted endorsement of Iowa’s Bob Vander Plaats, one of the most visible leaders of the Christian conservative movement in the state that starts the nomination voting. Rick Santorum in 2012 and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008.
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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has surged in Republican polls in Iowa, which a political analyst says is a crucial state for the GOP presidential candidate.
Trump also took a veiled shot at Cruz’s family background.
“I do like Ted Cruz, but not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba”, he told the crowd at a town hall event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.
Cruz opposes the subsidies, which are widely popular in Iowa. We have found that he is a man of deep character, a man that we can fully trust, who has a consistency of his convictions who loves his God, loves his spouse and who loves his family.
“I don’t believe Donald Trump is going to be our nominee”.
Since March, Cruz has been highly visible in Iowa, courting Evangelicals and winning valuable endorsements including the backing of Representative Steve King.
“He’s for the oil but I understand it oil pays him a lot of money, he’s got to be for oil right”, Trump said.
The freshman senator has been careful not to personally attack GOP frontrunner Donald Trump throughout the race, a strategy his Republican opponents have failed to do.
Cruz is trying to downplay the slight, but Trump is already snarling. “But I think we’re going to do great, we are doing great with Evangelicals”.
Cruz said in a statement that the endorsement is “more evidence that our campaign has momentum and is gaining ground heading into the final weeks of the caucus”. I believe that gravity will bring both of those campaigns down.
With the Iowa primary just a few months away, Cruz and Trump will go head-to-head for votes. Trump has led most polls there, but one poll from Monmouth University this week showed Cruz with a small lead. The group’s board has decided not to back a 2016 candidate formally, though several others affiliated with the organization joined Vander Plaats in endorsing Cruz.
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In the eyes of Iowans like Guth, Ted Cruz is already a step ahead of the rest. “We believe he is exceptionally competent and that adds to his extraordinary leadership”, Vander Plaats said.
