Ted Cruz might be the most hated person on the Senate side of Capitol Hill, but he's got the House maniacs on his side, with Rep. Steve King (R-IA) acting as head cheerleader.
Lawmakers like Reps. Steve King of Iowa and Mo Brooks of Alabama are attending campaign rallies with Cruz. Others are serving as surrogates at Republican debates, lending their names to fundraising appeals, and taking to conservative radio and cable TV in an effort to burnish Cruz's credibility with crucial evangelical and conservative primary voters. […]
King said in an interview that he's been an active surrogate for Cruz, talking up the candidate to the media and voters in the first-in-the-nation voting state. King's endorsement last month was a coup for Cruz, given the seven-term Iowa lawmaker's popularity among evangelicals and grass-roots conservatives.
The seeds of their alliance were sowed during a dispute over immigration in 2013. King wanted his proposal to overhaul the country's immigration system to be debated but felt blocked by GOP leaders. Instead of taking his complaints to the House floor, King said he held an eight-hour press event at which Cruz spoke. Days later, the two went for steaks in downtown Washington, staying so long that the waiters ended up "turning off all the lights." King said. […]
King said that to the extent that Cruz’s rebellious reputation in the Senate has been a big factor in Iowa, "it registers as a positive."
If you need more evidence that we have an insane primary system with Iowa taking an outlandishly huge role, look no further than Steve King being an important influencer. It's not just King, though, jumping on the Cruz bandwagon. He's got Rep. Louie Goehmert (R-TX), too, along with a handful of other House rabble rousers who are enthusiastically campaigning for him.
It seems like an awfully short-sighted strategy for Cruz, unless he imagines he can completely jettison King and Goehmert once he gets past the early states. But as of now the campaign is putting them front and center. "As Cruz gains more support going into the actual contests, media is more interested in hearing from our surrogates," Cruz director of rapid response Brian Phillips tells Politico in an email. "So we expect them to be more out in front than they have been so far."
So there you go. It’s hard to imagine a world in which having Steve King on your side is a great coup, but that’s today’s GOP.