From Breitbart:
“First off, Roe noted, Cruz waited until the end of a Federal Election Commission (FEC) fundraising quarter to announce he was running—meaning he had a lot less time to pull in big bucks to show off his viability as a candidate.
“The last person who announced the same time [in a quarter] that we announced was Tim Pawlenty [in 2012]. Pawlenty raised $160,000 in the first nine days of his presidential campaign. We did that within about the first 9 minutes of his speech,” Roe said.
That theme—break all the rules—permeates Cruz’s campaign and team.
“We view this race completely differently than most do,” Roe said. “If it’s a rule that’s in place, we want to break it.”
In addition, Cruz’s team is aiming to hire key grassroots activists in major states around the country to build a groundswell of support for his presidential campaign, rather than bring in political insiders. That way, in each key state, Cruz has devoted and loyal supporters fighting for him and his message, rather than just for a paycheck.
“What we are doing is we are hiring activists in these states,” Roe said. “We have activists who believe in the campaign who people in these local communities trust.”
and ‘“The last thing I would say is we are building a campaign not with data as a resource, but with data as the central point of our decision making,” Roe said, noting that Team Cruz isn’t going about data the way normal campaigns do.
“We’re baking data into everything we do, into how we are going to engage each individual donor and voter in the process to see how they’re going to be able to get the message of our campaign,” Roe said.
Roe noted that the campaign is taking messages of what voters want to hear about right to their doorsteps, using issue ID to figure out what it is they care about most then convincing them that Cruz has the best solution to their needs. It’s very business-like, almost like a sales pitch, aimed at engaging voters to find a way to sell them on how Cruz is the best product in the 2016 field. They are working to define the largely-undefined Cruz to primary and general election voters in a way that they expect will help them see that Cruz is the best available decision they can make. Essentially, if someone wants to discuss Obamacare instead of tax cuts, Roe said, then Cruz’s team will talk to them about Obamacare. That doesn’t mean Cruz isn’t strong on tax cuts, too, but talking to voters about what they are interested in hearing about makes convincing them to eventually vote for him when the time comes much easier.
“So the engagement of those voters is how we’re approaching this—not just talking at them with what we want to say, but communicate with them about what they want to talk about,” Roe said.”
From The Hill:
“Republican strategist Karl Rove has said candidates will need to raise at least $50 million to make it through the primaries, putting Cruz well on his way. Cruz’s early entrance into the presidential field has also given him a significant polling bump and vaulted him into the top tier of GOP contenders.”
“In addition, Cruz’s team is aiming to hire key grassroots activists in major states around the country to build a groundswell of support for his presidential campaign, rather than bring in political insiders. That way, in each key state, Cruz has devoted and loyal supporters fighting for him and his message, rather than just for a paycheck.”
Brilliant move.