Ted Cruz’s 2016 Plan: Court Hispanics, Millennials And Jews

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) talks with reporters after the Senate voted on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through the next fiscal year on on Saturday, December 13, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (... Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) talks with reporters after the Senate voted on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through the next fiscal year on on Saturday, December 13, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke) MORE LESS
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has a plan for running for president in 2016, according to National Review: don’t focus on winning over Independents, instead hedge on getting “Jews, Hispanics, and Millenials.”

That’s according to a new report in National Review on Monday which said that the Texas senator, if he does decide to run for president as he’s rumored to be planning on, has a strategy for victory that does not center around winning independents. As an unnamed adviser put it to National Review, “winning independents has meant not winning.”

The Cruz circle cited John Kerry in 2004 and Mitt Romney in 2012, who respectively won Independents but lost anyway, as well as George W. Bush in 2000 where he won Independents but lost the popular vote.

Cruz’s team directed National Review to internal polling that showed 40 percent of Hispanics in Texas supporting the junior senator from Texas. The advisers also noted that on social media he’s the most discussed potential presidential candidate.

There’s data stacking against this strategy. According to the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, Jewish voters split 69-30 for President Barack Obama over Romney in 2012.

TPM has previously highlighted the shape of Cruz’s (unofficial) campaign team. Like TPM, the National Review report cited that Cruz’s campaign would likely be run by Jason Johnson, who helped Cruz win election in 2012, and Jeff Roe, a Republican consultant who runs Axiom Strategies and is reportedly planning on moving to Texas.

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Notable Replies

  1. What about the Cubans and Canadians?

  2. Another Republican “out reach” program doomed to fail.

  3. Cruz’s team directed National Review to internal polling that showed
    40 percent of Hispanics in Texas supporting the junior senator from
    Texas. The advisers also noted that on social media he’s the most
    discussed potential presidential candidate.

    Usually in terms of how much a joke he is and just how long the odds are that he’ll ever enter the White House as anything other than a guest. But hey, let’s not sweat the details, right?

  4. Avatar for cabchi cabchi says:

    Definition of delusion: Ted Cruz wins the Jewish vote. According to the J Street poll, Obama got 70% of the Jewish Vote in 2012, which sounds about right to this old Jewish grandfather. If Hillary runs, she will get upwards of 90% of the Jewish vote. Cruz had better start looking to other ways to break into the Democratic coalition.

  5. He can’t win and will not be supported by the GOP’er machine if he gives the primaries a shot. But we can still have fun with this. He can kiss Jews goodbye. All that Christian crap is not their cup of tea and his fathers crap is a turn off too. He’s not a Latino. He is a Cuban and he best take a look at Hispanic’s opinion of the Cuban. They do NOT consider them Hispanic.

    But wouldn’t it be sweet if he was GOP’er candidate? But first he needs to show us his long form birth cert. Right?

    I think a Senator the other day should we should stop paying attention to this clown. It enables him.

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