Ted Cruz draws crowds on his ‘amazing ride’ through Iowa

“Stewart said she cemented a deal to join the Texas senator in the past week”, Politico reports.

“I do think at this point in time, you’ve got 30 days until caucus night, and he is definitely in position to take the poll position in Iowa“, said John Stineman, a Republican strategist in Iowa who led Steve Forbes” presidential campaign there in 2000. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. speaks at a town hall at Fisher Community Center in Marshalltown, Iowa, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016.

But the Iowan, who isn’t working on any of the presidential campaigns, said Huckabee is a proven vote-getter who is working extremely hard, with 150 Iowa campaign events planned this month. “You’ve never seen a candidate be able to assemble the kind of people that Ted Cruz has here in Iowa”.

As many as 20 media outlets, local and national, packed into the small restaurant as well, likely to keep following him as he continues to gain momentum in Iowa.

“Our country was built on religious liberty”, said Cruz.

This week, Cruz campaigned in Iowa with James Dobson, founder of the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family. But, she said of her spouse, “Tom really likes Trump, he does, and we know quite a few people that do”.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, like Santorum, is a previous victor of the Iowa caucuses.

Iowans are famously methodical about deciding for whom they will caucus – an extended process that requires participants to stand before their neighbors to declare their preferences. Both Cruz and Trump promise to upend the old order, and Cruz has taken great pains to align himself with Trump’s break-the-china spirit. Rand Paul, who is battling Cruz for libertarian votes, said on a radio show that he was unsure about his qualifications, according to BuzzFeed.

Iowa Republicans have already watched two of Cruz’s fellow GOP contenders, Ben Carson and Scott Walker, fall from the top tier in Iowa, only to have their overall campaigns go into decline afterward.

But Trump said he disagrees with Obama’s approach: “I think he’s incorrect about it. They’re just taking chunks and chunks out of the Second Amendment”. Or they’ve just got nothing better to suggest. Talking to voters at his events, there were some encouraging signs for Cruz on that front.

“I do like Ted Cruz, but not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba”, he said of the country where Cruz’s father, an evangelical preacher, was born.

“That was a powerful speech”, she said. If you want to protect America, and defeat ISIS, Rick Santorum’s your President.

And Van Wyk can’t imagine that Trump emerged from a successful career in real estate in NY and New Jersey untainted. That’s what Cruz wants, because it’s a key to building a Reagan-style coalition across party lines and winning the general election.

Huckabee had been saying that for weeks, though – and Cruz had made the sale months before.