New York Times
By Nick Corasanti
August 12, 2015
The
sweet tea was mostly gone, the homemade coffee cakes picked over by the
more than 2,000 who showed up here to hear Senator Ted Cruz deliver a
blistering indictment
of the direction the country is headed in and of the man who is now
leading it.
“You
know, in 2013, the Obama administration released to the public 104,000
criminal illegal aliens,” Mr. Cruz told the people gathered here in a
converted factory turned
concert space at midday on Monday. Among them, he said, were
“murderers,” “rapists” and “drunk drivers.”
This was a new addition to Mr. Cruz’s stump speech.
Once
the most outspoken conservative when it came to illegal immigration —
his appeals to voters back in March included pledges to “secure the
border” and a joke about
sending 90,000 Internal Revenue Service agents to help accomplish that
goal — Mr. Cruz has been overshadowed of late, along with most of his
rivals, by Donald J. Trump, whose suggestion that Mexico was sending
rapists and murderers across the border drew widespread
condemnation but also a fervent following in some quarters.
After a speech in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Mr. Cruz was asked about what a local reporter called the “T-word.”
Mr.
Cruz heaved a brief sigh, before saying, as he has often, that he
appreciated the attention that Mr. Trump had brought to the race,
including last week’s debate. But
a sliver of frustration slipped out.
This election is not about “a soap opera of personalities,” Mr. Cruz said, his only complaint.
If
Mr. Trump has commandeered much of the attention in the Republican
primary contest, Mr. Cruz’s seven-day, seven-state swing through the
Southeast was a pointed effort
to grab whatever limelight he could have to himself. The zigzagging bus
tour, which ends Thursday in Tulsa, Okla., with a “This Is Cruz
Country” rally, has drawn consistently enthusiastic crowds in the
hundreds, and sometimes thousands, as Mr. Cruz tries to
establish a foothold in states where a large number of delegates are
expected to be up for grabs on March 1, Super Tuesday.
That
so-called S.E.C. primary — a reference to the Southeastern Conference
of college sports — had Mr. Cruz flattering his audience with tributes
to Southern culture and
to the region’s growing political importance.
“Arkansas
is going to play a critical role,” Mr. Cruz told a crowd outside
Republican headquarters on Wednesday in Little Rock — a version of a
line he delivered to groups
in Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama. He made sure to note that he was
competing earnestly in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, too.
“But 10 days later, boom, it’s Super Tuesday,” he said.
Overflow
crowds were met with overflowing tables: baskets of biscuits and gravy
at Graceworks Church in Chattanooga, Tenn., pulled pork at a fairgrounds
in Jackson, Tenn.
Brown sugar meatballs kept a waiting crowd content in Murfreesboro
while Mr. Cruz detoured to the memorial to Marines killed last month in
Chattanooga. And sweet tea flowed at every stop.
“Y’all
are making it real hard to talk with those onion rings,” Mr. Cruz told a
crowd at a restaurant in Olive Branch, Miss. “Is there any food on
earth that isn’t better
deep fried?”
Campaigning
in the Southeast left Mr. Cruz — who as the first declared candidate
briefly had the entire race to himself earlier this year — the only
contender plying the
highways from South Carolina to Oklahoma.
He
adjusted his stump speech, highlighting faith and religion more than
usual. At Graceworks Church, where Mr. Cruz delivered his remarks from
the altar under a giant
cross, he pledged to order a Justice Department investigation into
Planned Parenthood and to defend those who he says are unfairly made to
break with their religious beliefs over issues like contraception and
prayer in public.
“Persecution of religious liberty ends today,” he said to a roar of applause.
In
Mississippi, Mr. Cruz was accompanied by Chris McDaniel, the Tea Party
state senator who nearly unseated Senator Thad Cochran in a contentious
primary last year. Mr.
Cruz hopes to turn many of Mr. McDaniel’s voters into Cruz volunteers.
Some in the crowd in Tupelo were clutching “Cruz 2016” signs in one hand and red “Vote McDaniel” signs in the other.
“Prior
to this, I was leaning towards Cruz,” said George Bogardus, 72, from
nearby Saltillo, Miss., who was also clutching signs supporting both
men. “But Mr. McDaniel
cemented it.”
In Arkansas, as at other points along the way, Mr. Cruz’s faith-filled message seemed to resonate.
“He’s
a Christian, and I’m a true Christian,” said Hazel Bragg, who showed up
to hear Mr. Cruz outside the Little Rock party headquarters. “And I
believe if he goes God’s
way, we can’t go wrong with that.”
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