Reuters
September 9, 2015
Ted
Cruz is languishing in the Republican primary race and hoping an
unusual move will give him a boost: embracing Donald Trump instead of
bashing him to get his message
in front of more Republican voters.
The
two White House rivals will share a rally stage Wednesday afternoon in
the shadow of the U.S. Capitol to voice their opposition to the Iran
nuclear deal. Cruz, a senator
from Texas, was originally slated to be the solo headliner. But he has
now invited rival Trump to join him.
Cruz,
a Tea Party darling who reached out to Christian conservatives when he
launched his bid for the White House, has failed to move into the top
tier of candidates seeking
the Republican nomination for the November 2016 presidential election.
Trump, meanwhile, has rocketed to the top of the pack and is enjoying a
massive lead.
Following
the usual political playbook, Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who
had been considered by many the favorite for the Republican nomination,
has gone on the
attack, calling Trump a Democrat in disguise and bashing him for
speaking highly of Democrat Hillary Clinton. The rest of the Republican
field has been happy to pile on.
Cruz,
however, previously has had some words of praise for Trump. Cruz, the
son of a Cuban immigrant, in July said he stood with Trump on
immigration after Trump said
that many illegal immigrants from Mexico are criminals.
But
in the unprecedented move by Cruz to hold a dual event is a hope that
he will benefit from the media attention Trump receives and get the real
estate mogul's fans
to give Cruz a serious look if - or when - the front-runner falls.
The
entire Republican field opposes the Iran deal, struck by President
Barack Obama and five other world powers, which will lift sanctions on
Iran in return for curbs
on its nuclear program. On Tuesday, Obama secured 41 votes in the
Senate for the deal, just enough to block a final vote on a measure for
disapproval.
“Trump
draws the media and we want to draw attention to the Iran deal,” Cruz
campaign spokesman Rick Tyler said. “He brings a lot of people into the
process who have been
checked out of politics and I like to imagine that a lot of those
people have not heard from Senator Cruz directly.”
Kellyanne
Conway, a Republican pollster working for super PACs backing Cruz, said
Republicans are missing a lesson by not looking more closely at what is
attracting voters
to Trump.
“I
think it’s less Machiavellian and more immediately practical,” Conway
said of Cruz’s embrace of Trump. “Donald Trump has captured a certain
electorate zeitgeist among
Republican primary and caucus goers. Senator Cruz is one of the few
people willing to learn rather than criticize.”
Ronald
Lippman, 67, of Buford, Georgia, is exactly the kind of voter Cruz is
trying to target in holding the joint rally. He’s backing Trump, for now
at least. And he
is aware that the two are holding a rally together.
“I
just really haven’t really been paying too much attention to (Cruz),
there hasn’t been too much coverage of him on the news,” Lippman said.
“He’s sort of in the background
except for this thing he’s doing this week with Trump.”
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