Visits to key primary states like Iowa suggest Cruz has an eye on 2016.
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During the gun-control debate, Cruz was among a handful of Republicans who threatened to filibuster any legislation that curbed Second Amendment rights. Despite his father's immigrant story, he was a staunch opponent of the bipartisan Senate effort to reform U.S. immigration policy, arguing it would fail to secure the border and would reward lawbreakers. He also crossed the aisle to back Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's push to overhaul the military's system for prosecuting cases of sexual assault.
Cruz's latest crusade is stirring Senate furies once more. By Sept. 30, Congress must pass a so-called continuing resolution to keep the government funded. Republicans, he argues, should block a vote on the measure unless it prohibits the use of federal money for Obamacare, the latest in a series of efforts to gut the law. "If we can actually get Republicans to stand up and fight," Cruz explained to reporters and conservative activists over Chick-fil-A sandwiches at a recent meeting on Capitol Hill, "I believe we can win this fight."
Many Republicans, including much of the House leadership and many of his colleagues in the Senate, worry that Cruz's brinkmanship will only spark a government shutdown, for which the GOP would likely shoulder the blame. "Totally unrealistic," Senator Susan Collins of Maine says of the idea. North Carolina Republican Richard Burr dubbed it "the dumbest idea I've ever heard."
While his Senate colleagues fume, Cruz is crisscrossing the country, dropping in on pastors' conclaves in Iowa and Republican dinners in South Carolina. He is climbing the 2016 polls, even capturing one national straw vote. Legal scholars believe he is eligible for the presidency despite being born in Canada, where he lived until age 4. "The most recent parallel to Cruz may be [Barry] Goldwater, who also terrified the party establishment," says Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker. That's not necessarily an endorsement. As the party's nominee in 1964, the archconservative Goldwater carried just six states.
Cruz prefers the comparison to Obama: two Harvard Law grads with compelling biographies yet diametrically opposed philosophies of government. "I think Barack Obama is an extraordinary politician," he says, tacking on the usual caveat about how Obama is running the U.S. into the ground. Cruz admired Obama's 2008 campaign so much, he gave copies of Obama strategist David Plouffe's book, The Audacity to Win, as Christmas gifts to his aides. "We are the ones we've been waiting for," Obama used to say. Cruz flatters supporters in a similar manner. "I can't win this fight," he tells crowds of the struggle to stop Obamacare. "There is no elected politician in Washington who can win this fight. The only people who can win this fight are you."
Higher Ambitions