Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took a shot at former Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R) prospects of clinching the 2016 Republican nomination for president on Thursday by wondering (rhetorically) if Bush could win any of the three crucial early primary states —New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Iowa.
“If you look historically since World War II no one has ever won the nomination without winning at least one of those first three,” Cruz said Thursday afternoon in an interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox News. “That has certainly been history. I think it’s an interesting challenge for a number of other of these candidates. You look at —the media describes Jeb Bush, for example, as the frontrunner. It becomes an interesting question when you ask, which of those states does he win?”
Bush hasn’t yet announced his candidacy for president (but he’s picked a date for it) but already there have been questions about whether he could compete in Iowa. In January Bush hired David Kochel, a former top adviser to Mitt Romney with deep ties to Iowa, to serve as campaign manager for an eventual run. The move was seen as Bush laying the groundwork for an aggressive push to win Iowa. But in mid-May Bush decided to skip the Iowa Straw Poll, sparking outrage from the the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party.
A Quinnipiac poll released just before Bush decision to skip the marquee Iowa event showed the former Florida governor lagging behind the rest of the field in Iowa.
National Journal also recently reported that Bush was aiming to compete heavily in New Hampshire and try and win that early primary state in lieu of avoiding the Iowa caucus. Polling has shown Bush to be much more formidable there. In South Carolina, Bush has polled closely with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) at the head of the pack.
Cruz, by contrast, polls on average near the head of the pack in Iowa, in the middle in South Carolina, and actually near the head of the pack in New Hampshire, right behind Bush.
But Cruz suggested he’s far more competitive than Bush across the nation.
“We are competing nationwide. We’re putting together a team on the ground, a grassroots team nationwide,” Cruz said.
