Texas senators focus on GOP rule
— With a week to go before a roiling presidential election, Texas Republican Ted Cruz is heading to Missouri to campaign for U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, a conservative in the traditional mold who has been a fixture of his state’s politics for more than 30 years.
Blunt’s bipartisan brand may not match Cruz’s, but the Texan’s trip on Wednesday signals Missouri’s importance for Republican control of the Senate, which has become Cruz’s focus in recent weeks.
Largely on the periphery of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign — which he did not back until Sept. 23rd — Cruz has been stepping up his efforts to help the GOP maintain its majority in the upper chamber, which could be imperiled depending on the fortunes
of Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Senior Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, whose support for Trump also has been muffled, has focused his energy on the Senate, as well, helping raise big dollars for Republicans around the nation.
Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, has raised more than $16 million for GOP candidates in this election season, an aide said Monday. Cornyn, however, has been less visible than Cruz, the GOP runner-up in the presidential primaries who bluntly refused to endorse Trump at the national convention in July.
The Lone Star State’s two senators — who have not always been on the friendliest terms — found common cause in a pair of $1,000-ahead fundraisers in Houston and Dallas last month. Together, they raised about $440,000, all of it for embattled Senate Republicans. None of it was for the Trump campaign.
The majority of Cornyn’s fundraising work has been in Texas, where he has played a role in GOP getout-the-vote efforts, including a Facebook video reminding supporters about early voting.
Cruz, too, has gone local, teaming up with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on a robocall campaign this week in Harris County. “We’re counting on you to vote early,” Cruz tells voters, “and vote straight-Republican ticket.”
‘Trying to fill a void’
The appeal to a straight GOP ticket is as close as either Cruz or Cornyn has come to campaigning for Trump, who seemed to be flagging in the polls until the FBI announced that it was extending its review of potentially classified Clinton emails.
With or without a strong nominee at the top of the ticket, the Republican Party has been on a divided trajectory of Trump and Never Trump factions — even before a 2005 video surfaced last month in which Trump can be heard talking about groping women and discussing his attempts to seduce a married woman, a scandal that prompted a wave of defections from endangered GOP incumbents, including Texas U.S. Rep. Will Hurd.
Many down-ballot Republicans, as well as those like Cornyn and Cruz who are not on the ballot at all, now find themselves serving as the water-carriers for their party’s ground game.
“There is certainly some lukewarmness toward Trump, but even if there weren’t, the Republican Party has had to pick up much of the slack from the Trump campaign about his ground organization,” said University of Texas political scientist Sean Theriault. “They’re just trying to fill a void that at least in the Democratic Party over the last three election cycles the presidential campaign has filled.”
With no certain role to play since his confrontation with Trump at the Cleveland convention, Cruz has spent much of his political capital on the Senate, where he often has found himself an outsider.
In addition to the $440,000 Cruz raised jointly with Cornyn to help six GOP Senate candidates, a constellation of Cruz political organizations have contributed about $200,000 to help other GOP candidates this year, campaign finance records show. Half of that went to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the political arm of the Senate Republicans.
Cruz’s leadership PAC, called the Jobs, Growth and Freedom Fund, has given another $45,000 directly to nine Republican colleagues in the Senate. Among them are Kelly Ayotte, in a tough reelection battle in New Hampshire, and Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who turned into one of Cruz’s most bitter rivals in GOP presidential primaries. Perhaps more importantly, Cruz has offered access to the extensive voter data he collected during his presidential campaign.
Cruz’s largesse has shown a willingness to overlook bad feelings from the past. Ayotte was an outspoken critic of Cruz’s role in a 2013 government shutdown in a battle over Obamacare. Rubio and Cruz tangled over their positions on immigration earlier this year.
On the campaign trail
In a further peace offering, Cruz met Rubio for lunch in Washington last month and offered to campaign for him in Florida, if needed, according to a top aide.
Where Cornyn has been content to raise money from donors largely behind the scenes, Cruz has spent more time on the campaign trail, including a recent trip to Nevada to stump for Republican challenger Joe Heck, who is vying for the Senate seat being vacated by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.
The races in Nevada, Florida, New Hampshire and Missouri are among at least seven that could help determine control of the Senate next year, along with Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana.
Cruz also traveled last week to Colorado to help long-shot Senate candidate Darryl Glenn, a Republican trying to unseat Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet.
Cruz’s trip to Missouri this week to help Blunt, a Republican fending off charges of being too much of a Washington insider, demonstrates that despite his well-known differences with Trump, the Texan’s name still has a certain cachet in conservative circles.
“Let’s face it, if Cornyn shows up in Missouri, who possibly is going to show up at that rally?” Theriault said. “Cruz clearly speaks to a certain segment of the Republican Party.”