“We need a president who will lead us down the right path. We need leaders like Ted Cruz to change the United States of America”, said Governor Abbott.
Advertisement
Standing in front of a giant welding machine at a Mach Industrial Group warehouse in north Houston, Ted Cruz appealed to roughly 250 Texans’ Lone Star pride Wednesday afternoon, delivering a drawn-out Alamo reference and promising that he will not back down.
Although an endorsement from Abbott was predictable, not netting it would have been catastrophic for Cruz.
“It’s our duty as Texas conservatives to support a leader we can trust to restore our values and move this country forward”.
It was curious that while Cruz lobbed some zingers at Trump (whom he likened to P.T. Barnum and said “the time for the clowns and the acrobats and the dancing bears has passed”), Abbott trained his verbal fire on President Barack Obama, ignoring the GOP challengers who now are Cruz’s immediate problem.
Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick were all in attendance. Ted Cruz, making him the most senior political figure to endorse the Texas senator.
But, Cruz knows he needs a strong finish here on Tuesday to keep his campaign going. Considering Sen. Marco Rubio has not yet won any states, Cruz is feasibly the only GOP candidate left who poses even a slight threat to Trump. As results came in that showed him finishing third Tuesday night in the Nevada caucuses, Cruz said Super Tuesday would mark the “most important night of this campaign”. Elect me, Cruz said, and there’s no question you’ll get a principled conservative.
He now has the backing of Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
It was not until the end of January that Abbott suggested he could make an endorsement, saying he could “weigh in” on the race before March 1.
Many republican presidential candidates are already in Houston ahead of Thursday’s Republican debate here. The Texas primary is Tuesday. It is made available here through a news partnership between the Texas Tribune and the San Marcos Mercury.
Advertisement
“Ted is someone that I’ve known for 13 years”, Abbott told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program.
