Iowa Evangelical Kingmaker Gives Ted Cruz His Blessing

And in Des Moines last Saturday, Cruz announced the “Cruz Crew Strike Force” and opening of “Camp Cruz”, rented apartments to lodge hundreds of volunteers from across the country coming to campaign for Cruz in Iowa. But his GOP rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz still hope that the tycoon’s fall is just a question of time – and are now jockeying to be first in line to replace Trump as their party’s front-runner. A CBS/NYT national poll let go today shows Cruz in 2nd place behind Trump. And he’s a nice guy. “I mean, it’s a public event. Ted Cruz”, Vander Plaats said. “Because that’s very anti-Iowa”. Polling in Iowa shows Trump and Cruz locked in a close battle.

“My approach – much to the frustration of the media – has been to bear-hug both of them and smother them with love”, Cruz said of Trump and Carson in the leaked audio.

In a statement issued by his campaign, Cruz said voters have a basic decision about all candidates: “Who has the right judgment and the right experience to serve as Commander in Chief?”

Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally Friday night in Iowa – the key early caucus state where Cruz has recently surged in recent polls.

Trump previewed his attack lines on Twitter Friday morning.

“@tedcruz should not make statements behind closed doors to his bosses, he should bring them out into the open – more fun that way!” “While other candidates in this race have gone out of their way to throw rocks at him, to insult him, I have consistently declined to do so and I have no intention of changing that now”.

After the Times published its story, Cruz said he was talking to donors about how voters will have to make basic decisions about all the candidates. But he appeared less than eager to engage on Friday.

At the time of publication, there was no immediate response from Donald Trump’s campaign for comment. Sorry to disappoint – @realDonaldTrump is terrific.

Ted Cruz (R-Texas), happens to be attracting attention for comments made at a private fundraiser.

At a closed-door fundraising event in New York City, Cruz had plenty to say both about Trump and about another one of his opponents, Dr. Ben Carson.

Asked at one point whether he would consider selecting Cruz as his running mate or nominating him to the Supreme Court, Trump was receptive.

“We would certainly have things in mind for Ted”, Trump told a questioner.

The poll was taken both before and after Trump’s recent call to ban Muslims from entering the United States. A candidate like Rubio, who backed a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, may be unable to win a majority of Republicans in many states.

“Sen. Cruz has not only signed NOM’s presidential marriage pledge committing to take specific actions as President, but he has personally authored the pending federal marriage amendment to restore the right of states to define marriage as one man/one woman”, said Brian Brown, the president of the group.