Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a 2016 Presidential hopeful who has been on the rise in polls in the important first caucus state of Iowa, has been using another technique to help stop the momentum of another candidate for the Republican nomination Donald Trump, who has been leading in many of the polls. Cruz has rediscovered an old strategy to use the Southern states to his advantage. Will it work?

“Ted Cruz stood strong in opposition to that legislation in contrast to another presidential candidate that was AWOL” Alabama congressmen Mo Brooks (R) said on Sunday December 20th introducing Senator Cruz in Alabama and also referring to the recently passed $1.15 trillion dollar spending bill that passed last month and which Senator Marco Rubio another rival missed the vote in the Senate.

The spending bill which passed in Congress on Friday December 18th, 2015, angered both sides of the political spectrum as it funded a variety of programs which Republicans decry and also the Democrats were angered by certain provisions that were implemented into the spending bill.

“He is speaking to those issues that are on the hearts and minds of Tennessee voters” Mrs. Taleghani, a Tennessee voter who identifies herself as undecided and the chairwoman of the Williamson County Republican Party.

The Southern states of the United States are crucial to a candidate being elected as the Republican nominee because of the way the vote calendar is situated with thirteen states being up for grabs in one day, on Tuesday March 1st. Seven of those states Southern states. They are, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia are the Southern states that make up Super Tuesday, also known as the SEC primary.

“These are Southern states, these are conservative states” Senator Cruz said at a speech in Knoxville Tennessee, early Christmas week. “We’ve got military veterans.” “We’ve got gun owners who love god” Mr. Cruz continued in his speech trying to relay his conservative belief system to voters who largely identify themselves as social conservatives or evangelical Christians.

Senator Cruz has received the endorsement of three crucial Conservative organizations, 1) the Iowa Family leader, 2) The National Organization for Marriage and 3) James Dobson, who is the National Evangelical leader. All of these endorsements will play well for Mr. Cruz in the Southern states of the U.S.

In order for a candidate to win the nomination, he or she must get 1,236 delegates out of the 2,470 available.

“We are the only ones that are organized and funded all the way up until March 15th” Cruz spokesman, Rick Tyler said on CNN. “I don’t know if any other campaign has both those assets going for them”, Mr. Tyler continued referring to the state of Alabama and the campaign staff that Senator Cruz has in the state.

In the latest polls released, (for the state of Iowa), Senator Cruz is currently ahead of Donald Trump in the Real Clear Politics average by 3.6%. In one poll, the CBS news/ Yougov poll has Mr. Cruz up by nine points, 40-31%, while other polls have it much more closely and Mr. Trump up 28% to Mr. Cruz’s 25%.

“Don’t sit back and say ‘oh Trump is going to do well.’ “The more we can win by you know, the more power we have and in a sense, because it’s like a mandate. But you have to go out and vote” Mr. Trump said to supporters in South Carolina urging them that showing support is not enough and that they have to go out and vote.

The issue of voters going to the polls may be a tricky one for Mr. Trump as this is his first go around as a professional politician and does not have the ground game as other veteran politicians. “It’s ok to be hopeful as you are delivering the message of conservatism. You don’t have to be angry and you don’t have to be upset, you can be hopeful” U.S Representative Trey Gowdy said at a recent rally in Newton Iowa.

Showing that you can win in Iowa is critical to starting a candidate’s campaign because it shows that you can win a crucial state and use that momentum for future states. It is a smart strategy that Senator Cruz is trying out by not focusing on just the important state of Iowa but also by branching out his campaign to the other important states in the primary to help ease a defeat if Mr. Cruz does lose the first state in the primary.

Links to sources:

1) Reuters Link: https://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/2015/12/22/ted-cruz-es-through-the-south-in-bid-to-intimidate-rivals/

2) Time.com Link: https://time.com/4059030/republican-primary-calendar-2016-nomination-convention/

3) New York Times Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/us/congress-spending-bill.html?_r=1

4) CNN Link: https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/04/politics/iowa-new-hampshire-south-carolina-primary-sprint/

5) Real Clear Politics Poll Page: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/ia/iowa_republican_presidential_caucus-3194.html

6) Washington Time Cover Page: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/23/ted-cruz-to-blaze-through-southern-states-with-eye/?page=all