Ted Cruz appeals to conservatives as Trump pulls ahead in Iowa

Ted Cruz came to a cold hay barn on a farm in a remote part of a snowy Iowa to make his case to conservatives and evangelicals in a final push to win the state's Republican presidential primary contest.

Polls show that the freshman Texas senator, one of the Senate's most conservative members, and the party's national front-runner Donald Trump are neck and neck in the rural midwestern state, which will be the first to pick nominees for both parties in next Monday's caucuses.

Cruz looked to shore up support among Iowa's conservatives on a campaign stop in the town of Osceola Tuesday morning with help from former Texas governor Rick Perry.

Perry, the first Republican candidate to drop out of the 2016 race, finished fifth in the 2012 caucus.

Campaign rhetoric

A day after candidly saying that Trump “could be unstoppable” if he wins the February 1st caucus, Cruz urged Iowans sitting around him on bales of hay and benches in the High Points Bulls Oswald Barn to look beyond the campaign rhetoric and to consider candidates’ records.

“Has anyone here every been burned by a politician?” he said. “How maddening is it over and over again politicians give great talks on the stump, they jump up on a bale of hay, they talk real good but then they go to Washington and they don’t do what they say?” he said.

Standing on sawdust in the farm, Cruz quoted scripture in appealing to voters in how to vet the candidates.

“You shall know them by their fruits,” he said. “Ignore what we say on the campaign trail because there is too much hooey in what comes out of the campaign . . . Instead of saying, ‘tell me,’ say ‘show me’.”

Cruz pointed to his own track record of upholding his conservative values in Congress: "Who has demonstrated that they can stand up to the Washington cartel?" the 45-year-old Texan asked rhetorically.

He checked off a list of policies that appeal to conservative and evangelical Iowans: his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, his defence of religious liberties and the Second Amendment right to bear arms, his attacks on Obamacare health insurance law, amnesty for illegal immigrants and radical Islamic terrorism, and his dislike of the Washington political establishment and big-spending government.

“Who can you trust to say what he will do?” he said. “You,” said one man in the crowd.

Cruz has lost ground with this kind of crowd. A NBC News poll on Tuesday showed that among white evangelical voters, who hold sway in Iowa’s Republican caucus, Trump has 37 per cent compared with Cruz on 20 per cent, a drop of nine points in a week.

In a further setback for Cruz, Trump was endorsed on Tuesday by Jerry Falwell Jr, the son of the late televangelist and one of the most prominent names in the evangelical community.

In an embarrassing snub, Falwell is president of Liberty University, where Cruz launched his presidential campaign last year.

Sharp attacks

Trump has sharpened his attacks on Cruz as he seeks to beat his rival in Iowa and halt his rise in the national polls. The businessman this week described Cruz as a “nasty guy – nobody likes him”.

“It degrades Donald Trump’s integrity,” said farmer and builder Mickey Smith (64) of the businessman’s attacks as he took his seat at Cruz’s rally.

“Donald Trump is, I don’t believe, a consistent conservative,” said Stephen Barnett (41), who has travelled from Texas to volunteer for Cruz. He took issue with Trump’s pivots on abortion and gun control.

Addressing his supporters, Cruz evoked his hero, Ronald Reagan, comparing his 2016 campaign to the Reagan's 1980 "revolution".

At one point, he praised Reagan for not using “his legendary Irish wit” to cajole Democrats to push a budget through Congress but by appealing over the head of Congress to the American people.

Asked afterwards about his Irish roots – Cruz's mother has Irish heritage – and whether he tries to use some of Reagan's Irish wit in politics, Mr Cruz told The Irish Times: "I certainly do my best. Being half-Irish, that is a part I need to channel more and more every day."