Ted Cruz comes to Texas as opponents sharpen criticism

Like his evangelist father, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz preaches the Holy Bible.

Donald Trump claims he reads it. But he’s probably looking for his name.

Together, they lead Texas’ Republican presidential primary as 2016 begins, with Cruz returning to the state this week for his first events as a powerhouse candidate if not the favorite.

Cruz will speak at 7 pm. Tuesday in a community center in Cisco, west of Fort Worth. It’s timed with a gathering of evangelical leaders at the nearby ranch of oilfield equipment billionaire and second-generation fundamentalist pastor Farris Wilks, a $5 million contributor to a Cruz PAC.

The location is also strategic: Cisco and Eastland County are in a maverick-minded part of West Texas traditionally prone to support outsider candidates such as Trump.

This time around, Trump has support, but “this is pretty much a solid Cruz environment,” said Cisco Republican Zach Maxwell, a Cruz voter and a political adviser to local candidates. He answered a call to the Eastland County Tea Party.

“A lot of people want to see what Trump does,” Maxwell said.

“Trump is saying the things everybody is thinking to a tee. He says what the people want to hear, but the question is whether he’d actually act on it.”

Trump leads Cruz by a poll average of 18 points, but Texans have seen Cruz rally.

At this point in the 2012 U.S. Senate campaign, Cruz trailed Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst by 11-12 points. But Cruz already had a more organized campaign and won a July runoff.

This year, Cruz is well-positioned in Iowa and the South as a faith-and-values conservative candidate and the likely second choice for supporters of fading Florida Republican Ben Carson or Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

“It’s hard to say anyone is winning, but Cruz is doing much better than anyone expected,” Southern Methodist University political science professor Matthew Wilson emailed. He writes and teaches on the social conservative movement.

“The Trump candidacy has been very helpful to Cruz. It made him look less extreme and made Republican elites realize that he’s not actually the worst possible outcome.”

From TCU, professor Adam Schiffer emailed that Cruz is “sneaking under the radar while the establishment ire is aimed at Trump.”

Opponents Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio just launched anti-Cruz ads in Iowa, portraying him as duplicitous and as loyal to Texas oil over Iowa corn and ethanol.

In 2012, though, Dewhurst’s attack ads against Cruz mostly helped raise his name ID.

Schiffer pointed to 2004, when negative Iowa ads in a Democratic race helped sink Howard Dean, and 2012, when eventual Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s early attack ads took hold and damaged both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum after they won the popular vote in South Carolina and Iowa, respectively.

“Cruz’s best bet is for Trump to stick around for a while,” Schiffer wrote. “Otherwise, he’ll quickly become even more of a target for negativity.”

We’ll see more of both in Texas.

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Ted Cruz comes to Texas as opponents sharpen criticism."