MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee Republicans have a history of bucking establishment presidential candidates, which could explain why tea party favorite Ted Cruz is making five stops in the state this week.
The Texas senator on Monday made light of speculation that he could not win the nomination because he was despised by Washington elites.
“I kind of thought that was the whole point of the campaign,” he said, pledging to stake out conservative positions that he said are key to Republicans winning back the White House.
“Every four years a bunch of consultants in Washington say the path to victory is to run to the mushy middle, and yet history has shown that every time we listen to their advice, we lose,” he said. “When we run as Democrat-light, we lose.”
Cruz visited Chattanooga, Murfreesboro and the Nashville suburb of Franklin before heading to a GOP dinner in Jackson on Monday evening. He had an event scheduled for Memphis on Tuesday. The Tennessee stops are part of a weeklong tour that also includes visits to South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Tennessee is among the Super Tuesday states voting on March 1, also known as the SEC primary because it involves several states represented in college football’s Southeastern Conference.
“Tennessee’s role, and all of the SEC primary’s role, is to ensure that the next Republican nominee for president is a strong, consistent conservative,” Cruz told an enthusiastic crowd in Murfreesboro.
Tennessee Republican primary voters gave the nod to Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008 and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania in 2012.
Cruz on Tuesday drew sustained cheers for promises to abolish the U.S. Department of Education and the Internal Revenue Service; repeal President Barack Obama’s executive orders and health care law; “rip to shreds” any nuclear deal with Iran; open a criminal investigation into Planned Parenthood; and to end what he called the persecution of religious liberty.
Nashville Tea Party founder Ben Cunningham said he supports Cruz because he has shown his willingness to fight for “rock-solid” principles in Washington.
“The frustration of the tea party and conservatives everywhere for the last decade has been that we send these people to Washington after getting our votes as small-government conservatives, and then after a few years they’re simply unwilling to make the hard votes to reduce the size of government,” he said. “Any Democrat calls them heartless and they’ll crumple like a house of cards.”
Cruz said he arrived late to the Murfreesboro rally because he had made a stop after a breakfast event in Chattanooga to visit a memorial to four Marines and a sailor who he said “were murdered by an act of radical Islamic terrorism.”
The FBI has not been able to determine whether shooter Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez was “radicalized” before the July 16 attacks and has been treating him as a “homegrown violent extremist.”
GOP rival Donald Trump warned last week that he might run as an independent if denied the GOP nomination. Cruz said he is not enamored by that idea.
“I think it would be terrible if it happened,” Cruz said as he headed to his campaign bus. “So I hope it does not.”
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