Has Ted Cruz finally given the far far right what it’s looking for in an Iowa caucus winner? Cruz isn’t just a candidate for the Christian right, he’s also uniquely beloved by the kill-government crowd, including groups like Club for Growth and Heritage Action.
Aides and senators said in interviews that Cruz’s 100 percent score with Heritage Action is no coincidence (Rubio has been dinged for his trade vote, Paul for supporting a Medicare reform bill). They say that Cruz’s switch on a big trade measure last year coincided with Heritage Action’s opposition and that the conservative lobbying outfit warned about protecting cuts to a crop insurance program but didn’t score the vote after Cruz broke with them.
“Their rating system is a joke,” said Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), a retiring lawmaker who has opened up similarly on Cruz. “They are individually selecting ways to make the people they support look good and to make the rest of us look bad.”
In an interview last week, Needham made clear that Cruz is his favorite of the presidential contenders, though he said Heritage Action will not endorse in the presidential election. Heritage is more favorable toward Trump than Club for Growth.
“Each of the front-runners is making a different case against the Washington establishment. Trump is saying they’re stupid and cowardly … Rubio is saying these guys are stuck in the past,” Needham said. “The structural argument that Ted is making is by far the most threatening to Washington, D.C.”
These groups would be fine with Marco Rubio—because, after all, Rubio isn’t the “mainstream” politician the media loves to portray him as—but Cruz is their moonshot candidate. And that’s a big part of what sets him apart from recent Iowa caucus winners but nomination losers like Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee. Cruz isn’t just a candidate of the Christian right. He brings together different parts of the coalition of cruelty that drives today’s Republican Party. That could help him win, and it would make him an unusually dangerous president.