If I remember right... hoping hubby swore that his fellow senators were behind him.... looks like they are.... just a looooong way back
Ted Cruz’s biggest challenge yet is making nice with his Senate colleagues
Republican senators’ least favorite Washington politician is not Hillary Clinton. It’s not Chuck Schumer or President Obama. It is Sen. Ted Cruz.
Senate Republicans revile Cruz with special fervor because of their sense that he has used his short time in the Senate primarily to engage in political stunts and mock them as corrupt imbeciles in order to promote himself.
The insults sting all the more because they have worked. With Florida Sen. Marco Rubio now out of the presidential race and Ohio Gov. John Kasich unable to capture the GOP nomination outright, Senate Republicans face what South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham has described as a choice between being shot or poisoned in a two-way fight between Cruz and Donald Trump.
Eager to consolidate support, Cruz is offering his version of an olive branch, asking select Senate colleagues to unite behind him through the rest of the GOP primary fight.
At the same time, Senate Republicans’ dislike of Cruz runs so deep that many plan to sit on their hands in the coming months and await a nominee. In more than 20 interviews and conversations over the past week, Republican senators and staffers described deep antipathy toward Cruz.
“Now is the time for Republicans to unite for all of us who want a brighter future for our nation to come together and stand as one,” Cruz said Tuesday night, urging Rubio supporters and others to join him against Trump.
Cruz recently began calling Senate Republican colleagues “with a pitch for party unity against Donald Trump,” said Josh Holmes, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
McConnell is not among those Cruz has called, said Holmes, who is president and a founder of Cavalry LLC, which provides political consulting to Senate campaigns and others.
Graham did receive a call from Cruz after musing publicly about backing him over Trump. The Texas senator emphasized areas of agreement, according to Graham, including the suggestion that “he will be a more reliable supporter of Israel than Donald will.”
Cruz’s fellow Texan, Sen. John Cornyn, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said last week that his suggestion that Cruz “engage with members of the Republican conference” drew interest from Cruz.
“The relationship could use some improvement,” Cornyn added.
Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, who endorsed Rubio, said that he doubts Cruz can convince senators who haven’t backed him yet to change course before the convention.
“I’m not sure what he could do that he couldn’t have been doing all along,” Inhofe said. “There are a lot of negative feelings.”
In a possible signal to establishment Republicans that he wants their help, Cruz said on Monday that he “could absolutely see a place for” Rubio and Kasich in his Cabinet if elected to the White House.
Cruz’s campaign is currently working to line up support from pledged delegates in anticipation of a potential convention fight in which many delegates could switch to support him after the first ballot. The odds of pulling off such an upset are already low, and Cruz could surely use help from Republican senators who might influence delegates from their states.
But Cruz’s outreach has so far borne little fruit. A Cruz endorsement last Thursday by Utah Republican Mike Lee, probably the Texan’s staunchest Senate ally, was notable primarily for how late it came.
“He’s a uniquely flawed messenger for a unity pitch given his proclivity to throw Republicans under the bus every time he’s had an opportunity to improve his own standing,” Holmes said. “Almost any other candidate in the field would be able to bring the party together behind their candidacy at this point. But everyone else might need to be eliminated before that happens [for Cruz].”
Cruz’s role in forsing the 2013 government shutdown is only the most prominent on a long list of grievances Senate Republicans have compiled against the Texas senator since his 2012 election. His support for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee that often endorses conservative challengers bidding to oust Senate Republican incumbents, has left lasting anger.
And so the idea that Cruz would be a preferable nominee to Trump is not a given for many Republicans. Alabama’s Jeff Sessions, the only senator to have endorsed Trump, is hardly the only GOP senator unsold on Cruz.
Ted Cruz’s biggest challenge yet is making nice with his Senate colleagues
Republican senators’ least favorite Washington politician is not Hillary Clinton. It’s not Chuck Schumer or President Obama. It is Sen. Ted Cruz.
Senate Republicans revile Cruz with special fervor because of their sense that he has used his short time in the Senate primarily to engage in political stunts and mock them as corrupt imbeciles in order to promote himself.
The insults sting all the more because they have worked. With Florida Sen. Marco Rubio now out of the presidential race and Ohio Gov. John Kasich unable to capture the GOP nomination outright, Senate Republicans face what South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham has described as a choice between being shot or poisoned in a two-way fight between Cruz and Donald Trump.
Eager to consolidate support, Cruz is offering his version of an olive branch, asking select Senate colleagues to unite behind him through the rest of the GOP primary fight.
At the same time, Senate Republicans’ dislike of Cruz runs so deep that many plan to sit on their hands in the coming months and await a nominee. In more than 20 interviews and conversations over the past week, Republican senators and staffers described deep antipathy toward Cruz.
“Now is the time for Republicans to unite for all of us who want a brighter future for our nation to come together and stand as one,” Cruz said Tuesday night, urging Rubio supporters and others to join him against Trump.
Cruz recently began calling Senate Republican colleagues “with a pitch for party unity against Donald Trump,” said Josh Holmes, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
McConnell is not among those Cruz has called, said Holmes, who is president and a founder of Cavalry LLC, which provides political consulting to Senate campaigns and others.
Graham did receive a call from Cruz after musing publicly about backing him over Trump. The Texas senator emphasized areas of agreement, according to Graham, including the suggestion that “he will be a more reliable supporter of Israel than Donald will.”
Cruz’s fellow Texan, Sen. John Cornyn, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said last week that his suggestion that Cruz “engage with members of the Republican conference” drew interest from Cruz.
“The relationship could use some improvement,” Cornyn added.
Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, who endorsed Rubio, said that he doubts Cruz can convince senators who haven’t backed him yet to change course before the convention.
“I’m not sure what he could do that he couldn’t have been doing all along,” Inhofe said. “There are a lot of negative feelings.”
In a possible signal to establishment Republicans that he wants their help, Cruz said on Monday that he “could absolutely see a place for” Rubio and Kasich in his Cabinet if elected to the White House.
Cruz’s campaign is currently working to line up support from pledged delegates in anticipation of a potential convention fight in which many delegates could switch to support him after the first ballot. The odds of pulling off such an upset are already low, and Cruz could surely use help from Republican senators who might influence delegates from their states.
But Cruz’s outreach has so far borne little fruit. A Cruz endorsement last Thursday by Utah Republican Mike Lee, probably the Texan’s staunchest Senate ally, was notable primarily for how late it came.
“He’s a uniquely flawed messenger for a unity pitch given his proclivity to throw Republicans under the bus every time he’s had an opportunity to improve his own standing,” Holmes said. “Almost any other candidate in the field would be able to bring the party together behind their candidacy at this point. But everyone else might need to be eliminated before that happens [for Cruz].”
Cruz’s role in forsing the 2013 government shutdown is only the most prominent on a long list of grievances Senate Republicans have compiled against the Texas senator since his 2012 election. His support for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee that often endorses conservative challengers bidding to oust Senate Republican incumbents, has left lasting anger.
And so the idea that Cruz would be a preferable nominee to Trump is not a given for many Republicans. Alabama’s Jeff Sessions, the only senator to have endorsed Trump, is hardly the only GOP senator unsold on Cruz.
