It’s a long way from Calgary to the White House
Calgary-born senator Ted Cruz, his wife Heidi, and their two daughters Catherine, 4, left, and Caroline, 6. Cruz announced
Monday he would run for U.S. president in 2016, making him the first Republican candidate in the race. Story,
Lynchburg, Va. • Senator Ted Cruz of Texas announced Monday he would run for president in 2016, becoming the first Republican candidate to declare himself officially in the race.
Weaving the hardscrabble story of his immigrant father with the resolve of the founding fathers and his own faith in “the promise of America,” Mr. Cruz spoke at length about his family and his Christian faith as he laid out a case for his candidacy.
“God’s blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation, and I believe God isn’t done with America yet,” he told thousands of cheering students at Liberty University.
“I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to re-ignite the promise of America.”
“Today, I am announcing that I am running for president of the United States,” added the Calgaryborn Mr. Cruz. “It is a time for truth, it is a time for liberty, it is a time to reclaim the constitution of the United States.”
The first-term senator and Tea Party darling is seen by Republicans and Democrats as a divisive figure in Washington, but as a truth-telling hero by many conservatives and evangelical Americans.
His speech was packed with calls to “imagine a president” who would repeal the Affordable Care Act, abolish the Internal Revenue System and “defend the sanctity of human life and uphold the sacrament of marriage.”
At times a history lesson — he invoked Franklin D. Roosevelt and Patrick Henry — at times a call to action, Mr. Cruz sought to position himself as the candidate who would give the Republican Party’s right wing the country they desire. He spoke directly to conservatives, with no real broad appeal to the more moderate wing of his party.
“The power of the Amer- ican people when we rise up and stand for liberty knows no bounds,” he said, before asking those in attendance to “break a rule” and text the word “constitution” to his campaign.
With his two daughters and wife, Heidi, in attendance, Mr. Cruz opened his speech by providing a biography not of himself, but of his parents, and describing his connection to his faith.
He told the story of his mom, a “little girl” growing up in Delaware who became a “pioneering computer programmer,” and his dad, the teenage rebel fighter in Cuba who fled at age 18 to the United States.
He was candid about his parents’ alcohol abuse and marital troubles, and he told the story of how his parents found their faith. He also presented himself as dedicated to hard work, noting he worked at two jobs to pay for school as a teenager and took out US$100,000 in student loans, paying them off just a few years ago.
“There are people who wonder if faith is real,” Mr. Cruz said. “I can tell you, in my family there is not a second of doubt.”
Several Republicans said Monday that given Mr. Cruz’s rhetorical skills and passion, and his ability to inspire restless or disenchanted conservatives and evangelical Americans, his candidacy should not be underestimated.
“He has had the single best sound bite over the last three years, saying that the big problem in Washington is we don’t listen,” said Frank Luntz, a longtime Republican pollster. “That message transcends ideology and partisanship, because so many in the public think Washington is out of touch.”
Mr. Cruz’s chief downside, Mr. Luntz said, is reflected in his relationships with other Republicans in the Senate.
“His colleagues really don’t like him, and it’s very difficult when your own colleagues won’t stand up for you,” he said. “There’s a subtle message that there is something wrong.”
Or, as Steve Elmendorf, a veteran Democratic strategist and Washington lobbyist, put it on Monday: “The question for Republicans is: Can an unlikable candidate who holds positions unappealing for the general election be viable?”
Mr. Cruz’s early entry into the race, according to people briefed on his strategy, was a deliberate effort to recapture the attention of his party’s right wing as he seeks to build a coalition of Tea Party conservatives and evangelical Christians to try to cut through a crowded field of Republican contenders.
Financial urgency also prompted the move: Republican donors have been flocking to other potential candidates, including Governor. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who since January has won the most notice among Republicans clamouring for a nominee other than Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor. Mr. Cruz’s advisers say his goal is to raise at least US$40 million, about US$1 million in the first week.
As a senator, Mr. Cruz has often defied and battled his party’s establishment. He defeated David Dewhurst, the sitting lieutenant-governor of Texas, in a Republican primary in which Rick Perry, the state’s governor, and others campaigned for Mr. Dewhurst.
Mr. Cruz’s tenure in Washington has been marked by accusations of demagogy. He sometimes deploys the soaring diction of a preacher while staking out uncompromising and rigid conservative positions, often playing the role of political flame-thrower.
He championed the government shutdown of 2013, infuriating many in his party, and some, like Rep. Peter T. King of New York, accused him of bringing the country “to the edge of ruin.”
Mr. Cruz, however, stood firm, saying that he was elected to shake up the status quo in Washington, and that he was doing just that.