Cruz’s dad walks fine line in campaign
Controversial pastor’s story and style are capturing attention, good and bad
Sen. Ted Cruz has more than Tea Party activists and big-dollar donors boosting his presidential campaign. He has dad. Rafael Cruz, a 76-year-old Cuban immigrant and outspoken pastor, has been relentlessly stumping for son Ted, filling auditoriums from San Antonio to Iowa City with enthusiastic crowds and becoming one of the top surrogates for the Cruz campaign. The father’s story of fleeing a communist country for the riches of America is striking a chord.
The elder Cruz also has drawn his share of controversy and criticism, such as when he told a gathering of Texas Tea Partiers in 2012 that he would like to send President Obama “back to Kenya” or compared the U.S. president to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The fallout could hurt his son’s cam- paign in the long run.
The Cruz campaign did not return a request for comment.
For now, Rafael Cruz’s rhetoric is being eagerly consumed by GOP audiences.
“Every candidate wishes they had a dad like Rafael doing what Rafael’s doing,” said Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Family Leader group.
Ted Cruz is aligning himself with his dad’s tale of how his home country lost freedoms under a communist regime, said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston.
That message, mixed with Rafael Cruz’s religious fervor, makes him an ideal surrogate among Tea Party activists and traditional social conservatives, he said.
Robert Stovall, chairman of the Republican Party of Bexar County, Texas, said, “He’s reinforcing the message that Sen. Cruz is getting out there: The battles he’s picking are worth standing up for,” he said.
Still, the senior Cruz also teeters on the edge of controversy. In March, BuzzFeed ran the feature “The 68 Most Controversial Things Ted Cruz’s Dad Ever Said.”
“In a general election, Rafael goes from a certain asset to a potential liability,” Jones said.