Cruz’s Texas network gives him a jump-start on rivals
Campaign team full of names from 2012 run
Weeks before Texas voters head to the primary polls, Sen. Ted Cruz is activating the potent network of tea party activists whose wave of grass-roots support fueled his upset Senate win in 2012.
The Houston- based presidential campaign on Thursday announced its “Texas Leadership Team,” which includes many of Cruz’s original supporters from 2012, folks who rallied behind his firebrand conservatism years before he became a household name.
The team also i ncludes nearly a third of the 150-member Texas Legislature — 43 representatives and 11 senators — plus seven U.S. representatives from Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and former Gov. Rick Perry.
Notably absent from the list is Gov. Greg Abbott, whom Cruz has described as his mentor, and who helped pave the way for Cruz’s Senate run by hiring him to serve as Texas’ solicitor general. Abbott’s office said only that the governor has not endorsed
a candidate.
The campaign’s announcement comes as candidates in both parties close in on the Lone Star State in advance of the March 1 primary.
Democratic Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has seven campaign offices across Texas, while rival Hillary Clinton opened a Houston office earlier this month; Republican Donald Trump opened at least two Texas offices in December, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio announced a Texas leadership team earlier this month.
Network in place
All will be starting their Lone Star ground games years behind Cruz.
“He’s firing up a preexisting network,” Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, said of Cruz. “The others will have to build theirs from scratch or tap something built by their supporters.”
Cruz is expected to win Texas, his home state. Many of the state’s 155 Republican delegates will be up for grabs district-bydistrict, however, giving other GOP contenders a chance to fight for some Texas support. Jillson said state and national polls suggest Trump could mount a formidable challenge.
“We take nothing for granted,” said John McClellan, regional director for the Cruz campaign.
Texas’ tea party network, while not officially unified under a single banner, voices passionate and nearly unanimous support for Cruz, whom they helped elevate four years ago when he still was an unknown.
“As soon as they tell us what to do, we’ll have a ground game going,” said Maggie Wright, 70, of Burleson, a recentlyannounced tea party cochairwoman for the Cruz campaign.
She led volunteer efforts for Cruz’s 2012 Senate campaign and just spent more than 50 days on the trail for his presidential campaign. She boasted that before Cruz took the stage to accept his Iowa victory he gave her a hug. Her Ford Explorer is wrapped with an image of his face.
“We’ve got to get Texas ready,” she said.
Tea party loyalty
Like Wright, many members of Texas’ tea party network met in 2010, when then-Sen. Dan Patrick assembled a now-defunct Tea Party Advisory Board to meet regularly in Austin. The tea party movement had just been credited for an unprecedented Republican victory in the Texas Legislature, and a caucus of tea party lawmakers was formed. Two dozen of the tea party caucus members are part of Cruz’s Texas leadership team.
The network of civilian advisers has forged a strong political bloc. JoAnn Fleming, once the chairwoman of the Tea Party Caucus Advisory Board, said 48 “roundthe-clock” groups with thousands of members collaborate to give the bloc its clout. She now is a Cruz campaign tea party cochairwoman.
“When he decided to run for president, he already had a network in Texas,” Fleming said.
Widespread backing
Cruz’s own relationship with the Texas tea party began in 2011, when the advisory committee invited Cruz, a virtually unknown Senate candidate, to introduce himself at Stubbs Barbecue in Austin, said Jim Lennon, a founder of the Kingwood Tea Party, who was there. The group rallied behind Cruz, and their mobilization of grass-roots support fueled his upset victory over incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for the Senate seat.
In the race for the nation’s highest office, the activists have stayed faithful.
“If I had to guess, I’d say we’re all unanimously behind Cruz at this point,” said Julie McCarty, president of the Northeast Tarrant County Tea Party. Leaders of other groups agreed but noted that each member is free to support who they like.
Their widespread backing is a powerful asset. Jerry Polinard, professor of political science at the University of Texas-Pan American, said the tea party groups may constitute the most powerful grass-roots activist network in Texas.
“It’s very important,” Polinard said. “This will certainly be one of the key things he’ll be using.”
Volunteer effort
The tea party network will raise volunteers to carry Cruz’s message. Fleming said the campaign will lease f acilities to host call centers across Texas. Other volunteers will organize block walks. Wright ordered 300 yard signs to distribute. Lennon said Kingwood activists would get out the Cruz vote via social media.
Even from the comfort of their own Texas homes, volunteers can work the national effort. An iPhone app gives registered Cruz supporters access to national lists of likely voters they can call and ask for a vote.
Hundreds of Texans already have traveled around the country on behalf of the Cruz campaign, and a hefty team in a state as big as Texas could extend its influence beyond state lines.
“This isn’t just about Texas,” said Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton, a top member of Cruz’s new Texas team. “We’re helping around the country.”
“As soon as they tell us what to do, we’ll
have a ground game going.”
Maggie Wright, Cruz campaign tea party co-chairwoman