Ted Cruz launched his quest for the presidency Monday with a strong pitch to evangelical Christians, a bloc of voters often influential but seldom decisive in the competition for the Republican presidential nomination.
“Today I am announcing that I’m running for president of the United States,” the first-term Republican senator from Texas told an enthusiastic audience of 10,000 at Liberty University, in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
“It is the time for truth. It is the time for liberty. It is the time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States,” he added, with his wife, Heidi, and their two young daughters looking on.
Cruz, the first to jump into the race, eschewed such traditional backdrops for a campaign launch as a hometown or an early voting state in favor of Liberty.
“God bless Liberty University,” Cruz said in his opening remarks. “I am thrilled to be here today at the largest Christian university in the world.”
Founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Liberty is a religious institution where students must attend thrice weekly convocation gatherings (previously known as chapel) to hear speakers such as Cruz, and where religious pop music plays on speakers throughout the campus.
Cruz spoke about his father, a Cuban refugee who was working in Canada when Cruz was born and soon left. He said his father went to a Bible study class in Houston after abandoning his family “and there my father gave his life to Jesus Christ.” Cruz’s father returned to the family, he said.
“There are those who wonder if faith is real. In my family there is not a second of doubt,” he said. His father, Rafael, is now a preacher in Texas.
The largest applause of the half-hour speech came when Cruz talked about Israel – a core issue for evangelicals. “Instead of a president who boycotts Benjamin Netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of Israel,” he said to a standing ovation.
He did not touch on the hot-button issues of abortion and same-sex marriage but vowed to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, abolish the Internal Revenue Service and end the educational standards known as Common Core, which are hated by conservatives.
“Why is Ted Cruz announcing at Liberty University?” said University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato in a tweet. “In 2012 57 percent of GOP Iowa caucus voters were evangelicals.”
Indeed, Christian conservatives are an influential group in many Republican nominating contests. But since the late Falwell’s Moral Majority group helped elect Ronald Reagan in 1980, Christian conservatives have been unable to nominate an evangelical for president, from Pat Robertson in 1988 to Mike Huckabee in 2008 to Rick Santorum in 2012.
Cruz said he’s aiming for a broader coalition akin to Reagan’s in 1980, when the former California governor united evangelicals, conservatives and disaffected working-class Democrats.
He noted that about half of evangelical Christians do not vote and that he wants to energize them. And, like Ronald Reagan, he wants to restore “the promise of America” to young people.
Cruz is a political newcomer, elected to his first office in 2012, when he rode tea party support to defeat an establishment favorite and then claimed the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the retiring Kay Bailey Hutchison.
He has been attacking the GOP establishment ever since, pressing Senate and House of Representatives leaders to draw a harder line against President Barack Obama. He helped force a partial government shutdown, which Republican leaders said hurt them.
Cruz did not endorse Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in his re-election bid last year, and Cornyn on Monday returned the favor and told Politico that he would stay neutral in the presidential contest.
“Cruz is the most like Reagan,” said Tim Boyer, a Lynchburg businessman who attended the speech. “He’s the only one who runs toward the fire instead of away from it.”
Luis Wick, 20, a junior at the school from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., wasn’t ready to commit to Cruz but said, “I like a lot of things that he stands for.”
Introducing Cruz, university president James Falwell Jr., the son and namesake of the university’s founder, said that Cruz’s appearance should not be viewed as an endorsement, since the university is a nonprofit and its tax status prohibits political affiliations.
However, there was a political subtext. Falwell said that Cruz had requested a speaking spot 10 days ago, and Falwell asked the scheduled speaker, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, if he would appear jointly with Cruz. McAuliffe, who is close to Bill and Hillary Clinton, herself a likely 2016 presidential candidate, said he would reschedule.
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