“But from a timing standpoint, I’m still watching, waiting”. Trump asked. He later conceded: “It seems like a two-person race right now”.
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Cruz also defended Trump after he made controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants, with Cruz calling Trump “bold” and “brash”. The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled his organization a “hate group”, a term the FRC sees as “reckless”. “I’m hearing from a lot of younger people”, said Jeff Jorgensen, chairman of the Pottawattamie County GOP, “and all they hear is Trump, Trump, Trump”. But a Monmouth University survey that relied only on registered voter rolls has Cruz with the lead: 24% to 19%.
Given that all of the GOP presidential hopefuls have decried the recent Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v Hodges, the NOM endorsement does mean something for candidates looking to stir up their party’s anti-LGBT base.
“If we don’t [nominate Ted Cruz and unite the base]”, he warns, “we’re going to lose as we have consistently recently”, he notes.
Even if Cruz does well in Iowa, he still needs to avoid the fate of other candidates, including Santorum and Huckabee, who did well with social conservatives there but failed to expand their support beyond that faction.
In October, we noted the possibility that John Kasich or Chris Christie could emerge with a strong showing in the Granite State; we still find this outcome possible, but believe that Christie is decisively more likely to pull it off. His reputation has soared in the state as he has talked a tough line on ISIS and emphasized the state’s growing heroin problem. Indeed, the only time the state has missed the eventual nominee since 1980 is last time around, when Republicans rejected Mitt Romney in favor of Newt Gingrich, during the former Speaker’s brief moment in the presidential sun. But, “in as much as there is a such thing as mainstream Christian evangelical, I would suspect he represents it”.
Cruz “can articulate a response and a message…that can be a response to a negative hit without having to attack who makes the assumption and the assertion”, said Louie Hunter, one of Cruz’s state co-chairs in Georgia. But I’m with you. “Ted was not that way”.
Here’s how Trump, a master at finding his opponents’ weak points, might mount his “easy” anti-Cruz assault. “Ted Cruz is uniquely qualified to challenge Hillary on foreign policy in a way that no other candidate can”, Viguerie tells Breitbart News.
Yet Trump, who has relished in whacking his Republican rivals, at times did not appear totally willing to give the same treatment to Cruz, who has yet to publicly call out Trump.
But Trump stepped in hot water in October, retweeting an insult to Iowa voters just hours after a poll showed him behind retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson in the state.
“He has a long reach, no doubt about it”, said Phil Burress, head of the OH group Citizens for Community Values.
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The other candidates may recognize the dilemma posed by the stubborn popularity of Trump’s ravings, but no one has been as deliberate, or effective, in incorporating the strains of white nationalism into their own overarching strategy as Cruz has. “Thank you Phil Burress”, Cruz told the crowd in a five-minute video shared with CNN.
