Cruz no favorite with fellow Republican senators
WASHINGTON – Republican senators are confronting an unsettling possibility: Sen. Ted Cruz, their least favorite colleague, stands within reach of becoming the party’s presidential nominee and standard-bearer.
Worse than that, many GOP lawmakers fear the Texas senator could ruin Republicans’ chances of hanging on to control of the Senate in November’s elections, alienating voters in a half-dozen key swing states with his hardline stances on issues from immigration to abortion.
And yet, these fellow Republicans say they’re essentially powerless to stop him. Any attempt to weaken Cruz in his primary campaign against other GOP candidates risks bolstering his argument that he’s running against the “Washington cartel.” So there’s little Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans can do beyond watch in dismay as Cruz rises in the polls in first-voting Iowa and elsewhere.
With Cruz as the nominee, “state and local races that take place in ideologically moderate electorates could be a bloodbath,” said Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff and a GOP strategist. Vulnerable Republican senators are partly insulated by strong campaign organizations, “but there is no question their job could get tougher,” Holmes said.
Cruz has attempted to make a virtue of his rejection by the Washington establishment, and his allies say he will actually help fellow Republicans by energizing the base and turning out evangelicals and others.
One of his favorite lines is quoting a newspaper article that, according to him, said, “Cruz can’t win because the Washington elites despise him.”
“I kinda thought that was the whole point of the campaign,” Cruz said, almost always generating applause.
Back in the Senate, Cruz has alienated fellow Republican senators on so many occasions they are hard to count. And now, with Democrats optimistic they might win the five seats needed to retake control of the Senate – four if they keep the White House – Republicans are desperate to protect vulnerable incumbents in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Hampshire, where a Cruz candidacy could turn off independents.
“He’s a very rock-ribbed conservative and very intelligent young man, very knowledgeable, put it that way,” said Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.
Some GOP lawmakers and pollsters view Cruz as more problematic than Donald Trump. Polling shown to House Republicans recently identified Cruz as the most difficult presidential nominee for any of them to share a ballot with.
In one clear barometer, four GOP senators have endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio’s bid for president, while none has backed Cruz.
On the other hand, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents this year, said, “If you run a good campaign and let people know what you stand for, you don’t have to worry as much about the top of the ticket.”