Ted Cruz, who defeated the conventional Republican candidate in the run-off for the Senate race, may turn out in the end to be Texas' Bobby Jindal. Remember when Jindal was elected and there were such hopes for him? But he turned out to be a serial dope?
And then there was Marco Rubio?
Well, tea party insurgent Ted Cruz, Cuban-American, Harvard Law-educated and with backing from Dick Armey and the Club for Growth, may be the next big hope of the national Republican party. Inside Republican Texas, Cruz was a disaster waiting to happen when he took on the establishment and -- yesterday in the run-off for retiring Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat -- won over David Dewhurst. Dewhurst is (and will continue to be) lieutenant governor.
Mr. Cruz, who is Cuban-American, has drawn comparisons to Mr. Rubio, another youthful Cuban-American who quickly became an icon of fiscal and religious conservatives around the country. Mr. Cruz’s rapid ascent has already shaken up the Texas Republican Party, in a race watched as a test of the enduring strength of the Tea Party and its stringent antitax, antigovernment themes.
“Mr. Cruz’s success shows that the center of the state party has moved decisively to the right,” said James Henson, a political scientist at University of Texas. “The Republicans are in much more treacherous terrain, not because of threats from Democrats, but threats from within the party.”
A Harvard-trained lawyer, a former Washington official under President George W. Bush and the former solicitor general of Texas, Mr. Cruz had argued cases before the Supreme Court but never before run for office. He turned out to be a natural campaigner, and with his implacable opposition to big government, he won the enthusiastic support of Tea Party activists in Texas and around the country.
Mr. Dewhurst, 66, a wealthy rancher and businessman, has held the powerful elected post of lieutenant governor for nine years and was endorsed by Mr. Perry and most other top party leaders as well as business and farm groups. Mr. Dewhurst will continue as lieutenant governor.
Mr. Dewhurst has a deeply conservative record, and often during the campaign the two candidates seemed to mimic each other on the issues, with both vowing to repeal President Obama’s health care law, cut spending, get tough on the border and fight abortion.
But Mr. Cruz relentlessly portrayed his opponent as a creature of the establishment who is too quick to compromise. ...NYT
David Dewhurst isn't an old-fashioned conservative. He's the contemporary, rapacious kind -- a corporate toady. We can expect more and worse from Cruz.
The general feeling is that the Democrats won't destroy the Republicans in Texas, the Republicans are destroying themselves. The Dems in Texas are, for the most part, moving to the right.
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The tea party movement is taking this as validation, following their win over Senator Lugar in Indiana.
Tea party leaders hailed Cruz’s performance as a sign of the movement’s political maturation. After bursting onto the scene in 2010, the tea party this year suffered defeats in a few Senate primaries, appeared divided in several GOP contests, and before Tuesday mustered just one clear victory — in Indiana, where state Treasurer Richard Mourdock ousted 36-year Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), whose missteps contributed to his primary defeat.
Following Mourdock’s victory in early May, conservative activists mapped out a strategy to emphasize the Lone Star State. The first step was keeping Dewhurst below the 50 percent threshold in a multi-candidate primary on May 29, triggering a runoff. That gave them two months to mobilize for a one-on-one contest.
Cruz’s win, they believe, could be a springboard to victories in other primaries this month.
“Texas built on Indiana,” said Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, a Washington-based group that helps finance conservative anti-establishment candidates. “Activists all over the country are watching Texas. We’ve kind of nationalized the race.” ...WaPo
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Think Progress finds five major flaws in tea party candidate, Ted Cruz. "His considerable intellect is rivaled by his very poor judgment." Among other things, Cruz believes the UN is out to destroy golf courses. He's determined to end Social Security, and he's an Islamophobe. And worse.
About those golf courses:
Ted Cruz Believes George Soros Leads A United Nations Conspiracy To Eliminate Golf: In 1992, President George H.W. Bush joined the leaders of 177 other nations in endorsing a non-binding UN document known as Agenda 21. This twenty year-old document largely speaks at a very high level of generality about reducing poverty and building sustainable living environments. Nevertheless, Cruz published an article on his campaign website claiming that this non-binding document is actually a nefarious plot to “abolish ‘unsustainable’ environments, including golf courses, grazing pastures, and paved roads.” To top it off, Cruz lays the blame for this global anti-golf conspiracy at the feet of a well-known Tea Party boogieman — “The originator of this grand scheme is George Soros.”
