EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Republican Ted Cruz, the ‘Marco Rubio of Texas’

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WASHINGTON, D.C.
When former Texas solicitor general spoke today at the FRC Values Voter Summit, as Cameron Joseph of The Hill says, the crowd went wild:

Former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz might not be a household name, but the candidate for Senate was cheered heartily at the conservative Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Working without notes and pacing the stage like a preacher, Cruz talked about defending “American values” and said liberals have “a reason to be worried” about the next election.
He got big laughs when he said that President Obama blaming the Tea Party for America’s credit downgrade was “a little bit like Charlie Sheen blaming [his problems] on the Betty Ford clinic.”
Cruz went on say that “our conservative values [are] under assault,” that Christians were being forced to participate in abortions and that the “gay rights agenda” is hurting Americans.

Cruz is truly a dynamic speaker, and his campaign for Senate has invoked inevitable comparisons to Tea Party hero Marco Rubio. Cruz was kind enough to grant me an exclusive interview this afternoon:

Once again, as I’m kind of in a hurry here, I’ll ask readers to provide a transcription in the comments, or at your own blog. Ted Cruz is obviously a guy we need to support.

UPDATE: Thanks to John Hitchcock for the transcript:

McCain: We’re here at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, DC, with Ted Cruz, former Solicitor-General of Texas. How are you today, Mr Cruz?
Cruz: Doing fantastic, Robert.
McCain: And I understand you’re running for Senate.
Cruz: I am, running for US Senate in Texas, and we have seen some incredible momentum and excitement. We’ve really seen Conservatives across the state of Texas and nationally uniting behind our campaign.
McCain: And as some people have compared you to Marco Rubio, as the “Marco Rubio of Texas,” you are yourself also Cuban.
Cruz: Well, that’s right. And that’s an incredibly kind comparison. Marco and I share a very similar personal story, which is that my dad is from Cuba, he was born there, he grew up there, and he was imprisoned and tortured in Cuba as a teenager when he was 17. And he fled Cuba, he came to the United States. When he was 18, he showed up in Austin. Had no money, didn’t speak English, had 100 dollars sewn into his underwear, and he went and got a job as a dishwasher making 50 cents an hour. And he worked 7 days a week and he paid his way through school at the University of Texas. And I’ll tell you, Robert, when I was a kid my dad used to say to me all the time, “when we faced depression in Cuba, I had a place to flee to. If we lose our freedom here, where do we go?” And there’s no question that better explains why it is I’m running for Senate than that question right there.
McCain: And so your website is?
Cruz: It’s tedcruz.org. Tedcruz.org and we’re also on FaceBook. We’ve got over 64,000 supporters on FaceBook nationwide. What we are doing is building a Conservative TEA Party Army all across Texas and all across the country. And we have seen tremendous support. Just this week, National Review magazine made the very generous decision to put our campaign on the cover of the magazine. And I’ll tell you, Robert, the last US Senate candidate who they put on the cover was Marco Rubio almost exactly two years ago. And it worked out pretty well the last time. I hope we see the same result here.
McCain: Alright, well good luck to you, Ted Cruz. That’s tedcruz.org.
Cruz: That’s it.
McCain: Alright, thank you.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE II: The Lonely Conservative endorses Ted Cruz.

UPDATE III: The commenters provide an abundance of information, including a George Will column about Cruz.

Texas blogger Lawrence Person has been covering the GOP primary campaign between Cruz and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.


27 comments

  2. McCain: We’re here at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, DC, with Ted Cruz, former Solicitor-General of Texas.  How are you today, Mr Cruz?

    Cruz: Doing fantastic, Robert.

    McCain: And I understand you’re running for Senate.

    Cruz: I am, running for US Senate in Texas, and we have seen some incredible momentum and excitement.  We’ve really seen Conservatives across the state of Texas and nationally uniting behind our campaign.

    McCain: And as some people have compared you to Marco Rubio, as the “Marco Rubio of Texas”, you are yourself also Cuban.

    Cruz: Well, that’s right.  And that’s an incredibly kind comparison.  Marco and I share a very similar personal story, which is that my dad is from Cuba, he was born there, he grew up there, and he was imprisoned and tortured in Cuba as a teenager when he was 17.  And he fled Cuba, he came to the United States.  When he was 18, he showed up in Austin.  Had no money, didn’t speak English, had 100 dollars sewn into his underwear, and he went and got a job as a dishwasher making 50 cents an hour.  And he worked 7 days a week and he paid his way through school at the University of Texas.  And I’ll tell you, Robert, when I was a kid my dad used to say to me all the time, “when we faced depression in Cuba, I had a place to flee to.  If we lose our freedom here, where do we go?”  And there’s no question that better explains why it is I’m running for Senate than that question right there.

    McCain: And so your website is?

    Cruz: It’s tedcruz.org.  Tedcruz.org and we’re also on FaceBook.  We’ve got over 64,000 supporters on FaceBook nationwide.  What we are doing is building a Conservative TEA Party Army all across Texas and all across the country.  And we have seen tremendous support.  Just this week, National Review magazine made the very generous decision to put our campaign on the cover of the magazine.  And I’ll tell you, Robert, the last US Senate candidate who they put on the cover was Marco Rubio almost exactly two years ago.  And it worked out pretty well the last time.  I hope we see the same result here.

    McCain: Alright, well good luck to you, Ted Cruz.  That’s tedcruz.org.

    Cruz: That’s it.

    McCain: Alright, thank you.

  5. George Will wrote about him in WaPo this past summer in a colum titled, “In Ted Cruz, A Candidate As Good As It Gets”.  I strongly urge you to read it if you have not already done so.  Cruz is an extremely impressive guy.  If he fails to win the primary, it will be a tragic loss for conservatives.  I just did a quick search and found the article:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-ted-cruz-a-candidate-as-good-as-it-gets/2011/06/14/AGdrmWWH_story.html

  11. Ted Cruz sounds like another TERRIFIC conservative Republican candidate.  Let’s kick the butts of the socialist-Democrats in Congress and the Marxist in the White House in 2012.

  13. As a fellow Texas lawyer, I’ve watched Ted Cruz with admiration for several years. Cruz has been a dynamic and effective public servant. He is one helluva lawyer, and in particular he’s been an effective appellate advocate for the State of Texas up through and including at the SCOTUS level. He is indeed the real deal, with a fine record already and an amazing career ahead of him.

  16. Only an a^^hat troll blames a practicing attorney for his clients.  What, he’s not supposed to make a living.  Go back to TPM, would ya’

  17. “The next Marco Rubio.”

    That would be “Amnesty” Marco Rubio.

    That’s what we’re afraid of.  When we Republicans elect Hispanics to national office, they need to be conservatives first, not “race men” first.

    If we want “race men,” there are plenty of Democrats to pick from.

  19. I will be proud to call him my senator. Conservatives here in TX like him a lot. He did a little small group sit down with us about a month ago. Personable and brilliant! The real deal. For those interested, he made the cover of this month’s National Review.

  23. That “black guy” is our Texas Railroad Commissioner and his name is Michael Williams. (also very impressive) but, he’s decided to run for  Congress Tx33 instead. http://tinyurl.com/6xkkvphTed Cruz is the real deal and Conservatives in Texas are very excited about his run for Senate.  I’m praying & hoping that both of them win the election in 2012. 🙂

  25. David Rogers, you need a littel education here.  Please allow me.  Rubio, my senator, is NOT for amnesty.  You’re stereotyping.  Furthermore, even if he were, which he is not, it would be for bad political reasons, not race.

      Hispanics are not a single, monolithic race or ethnicity, and Rubio shares absolutely nothing with the people crossing the southwest border.  How his politics develop, we’re all watching, but the ignorant stereotypes an conglomerating of a bunch of ethnicities into one is not only wrong but damaging.

       Blanket labeling has gotten you to think that this man thinks the way that you ‘expect’ him to think.  Isn’t that what the Dems do? Get a clue.

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