This week George Will had an interesting column about Ted Cruz of Texas, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison. Cruz certainly has impressive credentials having been the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas, an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, and even a domestic policy advisor to the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. He also has an Ivy League education having completed an undergraduate degree at Princeton and a law degree at Harvard. However, I think one of the most interesting things about Cruz is that he’s a Cuban-American in a state steeped in Mexican-American tradition. Will explains:
“For anyone seeking elective office anywhere, this story is as good as it gets: At age 14, Cruz’s father fought with rebels (including Fidel Castro) against Cuba’s dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Captured and tortured, at 18 he escaped to America with $100 sewn in his underwear. He graduated from the University of Texas and met his wife — like him, a mathematician — with whom he founded a small business processing seismic data for the oil industry.”
and
“Regarding immigration, Cruz, 40, demands secure borders and opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants but echoes Ronald Reagan’s praise of legal immigrants as “Americans by choice,” people who are “crazy enough” to risk everything in the fundamentally entrepreneurial act of immigrating. He believes Hispanics are — by reasons of faith, industriousness and patriotism — natural Republicans. He says the military enlistment rate is higher among them than among any other demographic, and he says an Austin businessman observed, “When was the last time you saw a Hispanic panhandler?””
But what Will doesn’t explain is that Cuban-Americans have their own “amnesty” with the Cuban Adjustment Act and that Ronald Reagan was a champion for a popular amnesty program. So like Marco Rubio, Cruz can tell the public a great story about his family coming to the US for a better life and conveniently leave out the explanation that the Cuban Adjustment Act is one of the most generous immigration policies that only applies to Cubans.
Finally, if I had to place a bet today, I imagine that Ted Cruz will win this Senate seat. On the Democratic side, retired General Ricardo Sanchez is running, and he has his own baggage from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse. Sanchez has deeper roots in Texas having been born into a family from near the border. It is interesting that Cuban-Americans will become the only Latinos in the Senate should Ted Cruz win in Texas, while the largest Latino group in the Lone Star state and in the country is Mexican-American.
Cruz has been playing to the rightest of the right since he needs to get passed the GOP Primary. The GOP in Texas has a record of primary-ing out Latino-Gov. Perry appointees in the past, so, he’s got that to conquer.
On top of that, Dewhurst may announce; however, a fight over a bill to ban TSA patdowns at Texas airports with Texas Senator Dan Patrick gave Patrick some needed press to put himself out there for US Senate. A recent poll stated he would have a viable chance, but the poll didn’t include Dewhurst, but it did include Cruz.
There have also been rumblings of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott who has major fundraising power and has amassed a right-wing record to put forth to GOP voters.
Cruz has been an appointee with no experience as a candidate, but I’m sure he’s well-trained and will have a Florida connection for money. I don’t know if that plays well, but in a race that will have right-wingers trying to out-right each other, I expect him to play the same game in that regard.
Latinos are not avid GOP primary voters. Many are falling behind General Ric Sanchez who is treated by Latinos as the war hero and by Liberal anglos as a war criminal for Abu Ghraib. But Latinos may vote enough to get him passed the primary; plus, he’ll have DSCC and DNC backing.
So if in November it’s between the war hero and the right-wing, self-hater, I see Latinos going for the war hero. If Latinos aren’t “allowed” to be at the top of the ticket in November 2012 by either Party, and Obama doesn’t do anything about CIR or if the jobs/economy situation is not strong, then I worry about what is going to excite Latinos enough to vote.
And that’s a whole other discussion. (You asked my opinion and I wrote a blog post. I hope you don’t mind. ha ha!)
I heard Mr. Cruz on television. He has a grasp of what’s wrong in the senate. I’m thrilled that we’ve found someone like him to run!