The 2016 presidential campaign of Ted Cruz, the junior United States senator from Texas, was announced on March 23, 2015. He was a candidate for the Republican Party's 2016 presidential nomination and won the second-most state contests and delegates. Cruz themed his campaign around being an outsider and a strict conservative. In the crowded early field, he chose not to directly confront the leading candidate, Donald Trump, who was also viewed as an outsider candidate. His cordial and sympathetic tone towards Trump contrasted with the more critical approach of rivals such as Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul.
As the field narrowed, Cruz's position in the race strengthened, owing to his debate performances and strong field infrastructure. He won the Iowa Caucuses in February, the first contest of the race. But as the field narrowed and less-viable candidates dropped out, Republican support concentrated around Trump rather than Cruz. Trump beat Cruz handily on Super Tuesday and in most subsequent primaries. At this point, with the race essentially narrowed to one between Cruz and Trump, the two candidates began to openly criticize each other (whereas they had previously been notably cordial). Trump repeatedly called Cruz "Lyin' Ted" and on one occasion retweeted a deprecating tweet regarding the physical appearance of Cruz's wife. Trump also parroted a story in the National Enquirer claiming that Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, was involved in the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Cruz called Trump a chronic liar, "completely amoral", and questioned whether he was a genuine conservative.
In late April, while trailing Trump heavily in the delegate count, Cruz announced that his vice presidential running mate would be former-candidate Carly Fiorina. A week later, he lost the Indiana primary, which he had called pivotal to stopping Trump from clinching the nomination. Having become mathematically disqualified from achieving a majority of delegates prior to the first convention vote, he suspended his campaign the same night.
Background
Leading up to the 2016 presidential election cycle, commentators expressed their opinion that Cruz would run for President in 2016. On March 14, 2013, he gave the keynote speech at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. He tied for 7th place in the 2013 CPAC straw poll on March 16, winning 4% of the votes cast. He performed even more strongly in the 2014 CPAC straw poll, coming in second with 11% behind Kentucky senator Rand Paul. In the 2015 CPAC poll, he came in third with 11.5% behind Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and Paul. In October 2013, Cruz won the Values Voter Summit Presidential straw poll with 42% of the vote, which was the highest percentage of any winning candidate in that poll's history. A year later, he won the same poll again by a smaller margin of 25%, becoming the first person to ever win more than one VVS straw poll. He came in first place in the two most recent Presidential straw polls conducted in 2014 with 30.33% of the vote at the Republican Leadership Conference and 43% of the vote at the Republican Party of Texas state convention.
Cruz spoke at events in the summer of 2013 across Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, early primary states, leading to speculation that he was laying the groundwork for a run for President in 2016. On April 12, 2014, Cruz spoke at the Freedom Summit, an event organized by Americans for Prosperity and Citizens United. The event was attended by several potential presidential candidates. In his speech, Cruz mentioned that Latinos, young people and single mothers are the people most affected by the recession, and that the Republican Party should make outreach efforts to these constituents. He also said that the words "growth and opportunity" should be tattooed on the hands of every Republican politician.
Cruz, whose Canadian birth has prompted some to challenge his eligibility for presidential office under the natural-born-citizen clause, formally applied to renounce his dual Canadian citizenship in the run-up to his campaign, and ceased being a citizen of Canada on May 14, 2014.
Campaign
Logo
The campaign logo consisted of a Flag of the United States spliced with the Torch of Liberty. The design became one of the most recognized political brand logos during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. It has also been compared to the Church of Pentecost symbol.
Announcement and preliminaries
Cruz announced his campaign for the presidency on March 23, 2015, at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, during the student convocation. In his announcement speech, Cruz spoke of his plans for a constitutional government and said he would "stand for liberty". Cruz called on the audience to imagine a president repealing the Affordable Care Act and supporting Israel, economic growth, border security while allowing legal immigration, a flat tax and the abolition of the IRS. Liberty University students were required to attend the event, or else be fined, which the university's president Jerry Falwell Jr. confirmed adding, "No one is expected to agree with every speaker on every point." He became the first announced major Republican presidential candidate for the 2016 campaign. Cruz was believed to have initiated a long shot presidential bid, commentators referring to him as having no chance of winning the nomination, much less the general election, due to what was perceived as his lack of likability. Cruz, a freshman senator running for the presidency in his first term, faced comparisons to President Barack Obama who similarly ran for the presidency during his first term in the U.S. Senate. Cruz dispelled similarities by calling the president a "backbencher" who did not take positions on "whole lot of issues of consequence" during his tenure in the senate, which he argued could not be applied to him, in effect spending the first few days of his presidential campaign trying to distance himself from the incumbent president.
On April 1, Public Policy Polling showed Cruz in third place at 16%, behind potential candidates Jeb Bush and Scott Walker who were at 17% and 20%.
Cruz's name recognition significantly increased shortly after his campaign began, in April rising by 21 points to 82% from the 61% he had the previous month. Cruz welcomed several candidates into the race following their individual announcements of their candidacy for the presidency, praising them as well. A Des Moines Register poll released in May showed Cruz in eighth place at 5% among caucus goers. Cruz significantly increased his appearances in Iowa from June 2015. On June 18, the day after the Charleston church shooting, Cruz gave a speech empathizing with the lost lives and led onlookers in a moment of silence. At the same time, former political director Craig Robinson expressed that while he thought of Cruz as "the perfect caucus candidate", he did not feel he was committing to Iowa.
On August 3, 2015, Cruz was featured in YouTube video frying bacon off the end of a semi-automatic rifle at the Central Iowa Impact Gun Range in Boone, Iowa. "There is nothing I enjoy more than on weekends cooking breakfast with the family," Cruz said in the video. "Of course in Texas we cook bacon a little differently than most folks." The month of August also saw the release of a campaign video where Cruz promised in his opposition to Planned Parenthood to prosecute the organization for "selling body parts". In the first few months of the campaign, Cruz held campaign rallies in Tulsa, Columbus, Hoover, Huntsville and Montgomery.
August–September campaigning Cruz successfully qualified for the first presidential debate of the election cycle, coming in 6th place in the overall list of the top 10 candidates. Cruz's performance was mostly well-received, although debate coach and strategist Michael Sheehan found him annoying and strategist Rick Wilson wondered if the performance, despite showing "Cruz-like brilliance", helped him as much as people thought. In an NBC News poll released on August 9, three days after the Ohio Republican presidential debate, Cruz came in 2nd place with 13% overall, more than doubling his prior support.
Cruz journeyed to the southern states in the days following the debate, eight of which being slated to cast ballots on March 1 on a day monikered the "SEC Primary". He courted voters while going on bus tours, his rivals spending time campaigning in Iowa. "Like the SEC does two-a-days, we're doing two-a-days here right now," Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said. "Everybody comes in for a Fourth of July event—a big speech, or some sort of cattle call—but spending the time, doing these type of events? We don't see that from anybody else." Cruz's public appearances throughout the southern states were well-publicized.
The second Republican presidential debate took place on September 16, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. As with the first debate, Cruz did not participate in the "verbal combat" between the other candidates, only criticizing former Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush for their appointments of David Souter and John Roberts to the Supreme Court, arguing the pair could have appointed conservatives in their place that would have voted "differently on cases that enraged the conservative base." In hindsight, Cruz's undistinguished Fox News and CNN debate performances were viewed as being purposeful, as he "was biding his time." In a poll released on September 20, four days after the debate, Cruz came in sixth place, tied with Mike Huckabee. Cruz visited Kentucky around this time, in support of the release of Kim Davis, but reportedly was blocked by an aide to Huckabee from appearing alongside her.
Days after fellow presidential candidate Donald Trump did not correct a man who claimed President Obama was a Muslim, a move that generated controversy and negative reception by the White House, Democrats and Republicans, Cruz declined to answer whether he thought the president was a Christian, reasoning that Obama's faith "is between him and God" and opted to give his stance that the Obama administration had been antagonistic towards Christians. Cruz debunked fellow presidential candidate Ben Carson's claim that a Muslim should not serve as president, saying, "The Constitution specifies there shall be no religious test for public office, and I'm a constitutionalist."
Post-CNBC debate
Cruz was a participant in the CNBC Republican presidential debate on October 28. In his opening statement, he stressed his willingness to govern properly, and later in the debate charged the moderators with asking bait questions. Cruz's performance was well-received, as he had "effectively articulated" his strategy of being the second choice for voters, enough of which would give him "the broadest base of support left when the dust clears." Cruz was also seen as having won the debate. Cruz was the most discussed of all candidates on Facebook the night of the debate and came in second to Donald Trump on Twitter for the most-talked about.
On October 31, Cruz was a speaker at a Growth and Opportunity Party event in Iowa. It was commented that Cruz received the biggest showing of the ten candidates present at the event. In a poll released on November 2, Cruz came in second place for favorability among Iowans, only surpassed by Ben Carson. Two other polls released the same day showed Cruz in third place in Iowa at 15%, behind Donald Trump and Ben Carson. In a Quinnipiac University poll, noted by Fox News as having been taken after the CNBC debate, Cruz came in fourth place at 13%, behind the two aforementioned candidates and Marco Rubio. Cruz stated shortly after the poll that the possibility of Rubio and himself being the last candidates remaining in the crowded field was a "plausible outcome."