Posted on 11/28/2015 7:11:15 AM PST by Isara
In the Texas senator's bid for the White House, his father and wife are the tip of the spear.
To one degree or another, every candidate running for president has enlisted their family in their effort. But none have gone so far as Ted Cruz, whose surging campaign has placed his wife Heidi and father Rafael at the tip of the spear, leading fundraising and organizing efforts as if they were paid staffers.
Neither has a formal title, but as the Texas senator continues to roll out endorsements and assemble a growing network of supporters in the early states and across the South in anticipation of the March 1 primaries, the influence of his wife, on leave from her position as an executive at Goldman Sachs, and his father, a pastor who is a fixture on the evangelical speaking circuit, is becoming stamped across his campaign.
Rafael Cruz has been central to his son's evangelical outreach efforts for months. For many Christian conservatives, the first introduction to the Cruz family was through Rafael, who served as a key bridge between religious leaders and the campaign. Last summer he did a multi-city swing through Iowa churches where he was accompanied by the Cruz campaign's Iowa state director and preached about the importance of getting Christians to vote. His son is rarely the subject of his sermons - but it's implied.
For most of the campaign, Heidi Cruz focused almost singularly on fundraising. But after largely playing a behind the scenes role, she has started ratcheting up her public presence in recent weeks. She joined Twitter this month and has already done solo swings through states including Alabama and Georgia, maintaining a pace that sometimes rivals her husband's, with as many as three stops a day. She has a heavy travel schedule planned through the end of the year.
Just as important, Heidi Cruz has joined Rafael Cruz in quietly courting lawmakers, according to several legislators who are backing Cruz, sometimes forming a one-two Cruz family punch before the senator gets involved.
Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent Iowa social conservative whose Family Leader organization hosted a presidential forum earlier this month, has met at various times with Rafael, Heidi and Ted Cruz as he weighs an endorsement.
"Cruz definitely has made this a family affair," he said, ticking through all the spouses of candidates he hasn't met.
Like other candidates' wives, Heidi Cruz's public mission is, in part, to soften the edges of her husband, who is reviled by many of his Senate colleagues. But her actual portfolio is much broader, encompassing fundraising, strategy and tactics.
The Cruzes met while working on George W. Bush's campaign - and Heidi Cruz held several roles in the Bush administration - so she is as comfortable talking strategy with donors and GOP officials as she is in the more traditional political spousal role of opening up about family life and humanizing her husband.
"She's very sharp in her own right, very impressive," said South Carolina State Rep. Wendy Nanney, who got a call from Heidi Cruz during which the two discussed the Texas senator's record as well as Nanney's own work challenging abortion rights. "It was a great conversation with her, I was very comfortable, and that led into a meeting with him, [and my] being very comfortable and able to talk very openly."
Nanney is now one of Cruz's South Carolina co-chairs.
"Ted and Heidi are the closest Republican equivalent of the political powerhouse couple Bill and Hillary Clinton," said Cruz campaign chair Chad Sweet. "Their marriage was forged in the heat of a presidential campaign and their partnership in American politics has not stopped since. Each is a formidable politico in their own right."
Now, through social media and radio hits, women's lunches and phone calls to key activists, Heidi Cruz is intensifying her public efforts to shore up support for her husband, a mandate that includes showcasing a gentler side to a candidate who is rising in the polls but is sometimes stiff while working a crowd, and has drawn criticism from top Republicans ranging from John Boehner to George W. Bush.
"This election is going to come down to trust," she said in a recent interview with POLITICO. "If you are looking to trust someone, you need to know them, and knowing them is multidimensional...The news media loves to portray Ted as such a serious person, the media tells you he doesn't connect, and when I tell you these things about how well he connects not only with voters but with family, I think it goes against that narrative."
She talks about her husband's fondness for Broadway musicals and his inside jokes with their two young daughters, and in front of women's groups has stressed that he has compassion for single mothers, in part because that was his half-sister's experience.
"I want to show people that Ted can unite this party, that Ted is speaking to common-sense principles that bring us all together," Cruz said. "I also want to show this country that he is incredibly thoughtful, both professionally and personally. This is a man who's never missed a date night, who's never missed a birthday, who loves his girls so much like every father does in this country.
"Not all the public know that yet, and the media loves to paint him as a fiery, outspoken advocate for the extreme right that can never win," continued Cruz, vowing to show that that's not the full picture.
Steve Deace, an influential conservative Iowa radio host who is backing Cruz, had several meetings with the senator, his wife and his father. Deace's wife also had lunch with Heidi Cruz.
"They each have God-given roles and just complement each other very well," said Deace, calling them a "model contemporary Christian couple."
"Ted's got the killer instinct when it comes to pursuing principles," he said. "Heidi's got the killer instinct when it comes to gathering resources to run a successful campaign."
Yet Deace's first connection to the Cruz family was through Rafael Cruz, whom he met in Iowa evangelical circles. That's not an uncommon experience: Eric Woolson, who worked on Christian conservative outreach for Scott Walker in Iowa before the Wisconsin governor dropped out, told POLITICO recently said that he was constantly running up against pastors who were glowing about "how impressed they were with Sen. Cruz's dad, how much work he'd done."
Agree 100%.
Even though Heidi Cruz works for the Bilderbergers and moonlights for the Illuminati while hostessing part-time at the Bohemian Grove. /S
Well, I’m voting for Ted Cruz, not his wife.
Do you have any hard evidence of wrongdoing on Mrs. Cruz’s part? Or is it all guilt by association? As far as I know, she has never been criminally prosecuted. By the way, I think she’s still on a leave of absence from GS, so it’s not clear how much input, if any, she has on the firm.
For me, it’s a matter of trust. Ted Cruz has a track record of truly representing the people who elected. None of the other candidates do. Elect one of the others and you will most likely find you have been lied to and cheated on. I’ve had enough of phony conservatives.
LOL!!!
*snicker*
If worse came to worst, one might need to compare the Clinton Foundation situation to Goldman Sachs and see if they are even close to being the same. What do both of these companies back? Who has benefited from what party and how? Who benefits what party and how? Which one better represents mainstream America, if we had to ask? How tightly tied is Mrs. Cruz to Goldman Sachs vs. Hillary Clinton to the Clinton Foundation?
Cruz could stand to be calmer about it, if your description is correct. He’s put his faith in God. Now he will be wise to let it play out.
If Cruz has a problem, it’s been because the face he has let America see is near-perfection. Now potential flaws are being seen and the alabaster saint has a smudge or two. Here’s where a witness to the effect that “Maybe I am not perfect, and maybe the world I have to live in is not perfect, but I serve a perfect God” could have an opportunity.
Sorry. No low info posts for me.
LOL, leave it to you to try and instruct Ted Cruz on how to be a Christian.
I imagine he could teach you a lesson or ten.
Yes and it beats having a naked wife in GQ.
Geez.
Trump IS a plutocrat.
“There is no one who does good, not one.”
The fate of all humanity is to fall into its own flaws but not for accepting the saving grace of God.
Cruz is a highly religious person, no doubt about it. The level of explicit witness to at least some aspects of the Lord is like day vs. night. HOWEVER. Does Cruz have any kind of meaningful experience about which he can say, “God SAVED me”? I see that all over my own life. I’ve been a goof ball in myriad ways and God came kindly by and guided me back into the right path. Too perfect is too suspect. It doesn’t match the story of the bible about humanity, and the story that I know of humanity.
Trump is maybe a Jupitercrat. He isn’t in the realm of the plutocrats.
I get the sense that Senator Cruz aka Ted will be our next President.
No flash in the pan there!
Yes, I am sure he could give me myriad lessons in polishing up my alabaster (if I had any alabaster).
He cannot show me a better Jesus than the One who already rules and reigns, and who stooped to my need.
Jupiter...a false god.
Uh-huh.
Jupiter jokes are fine.
Just don't mention Uranus.
So what is yours? Mars? With the way you are being a battle axe, maybe. All of a sudden now you are concerned to twist a reference to a planet into something I never said?
— Trump IS a plutocrat. —
I suspect that means he will have a very heavy influence on himself. He will probably even do what he expects himself to do.
Definitely that’s Barack Obama
Hope you’re right!
Now, now! WWJD?
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