The Ted Cruz victory for Texas U.S. Senate is another “Hispanic Tea Party” victory. His support by the Tea Party may be confusing to liberals and some traditional Republicans. Many people are wondering why Hispanics, like Cruz and Marco Rubio, are being supported and elected with conservative support, when Hispanics are supposed to be traditionally Democrats.
The answer is simple. Hispanics are pro-family, religious, and patriotic; and the differences between Hispanic cultural values and the politics of liberal Democrats have never been more pronounced than now.
For example, conservatives and Hispanics support traditional families, while Democrats support gay marriage. Conservatives and Hispanics are patriotic, while Democrats want to weaken America’s military. Obama and liberals also do not take a strong stand against America’s foreign enemies. Conservatives and Hispanic are also religious, while Obama and liberal Democrats have attacked religion with the HHS contraceptive mandate. Hispanics have conservative values like the Tea Party.
Another issue that appeals to Hispanics is the bold honesty conservatives have toward political, social, and economic issues. Hispanics welcome the truth and dislike politicians pandering to them because of race and ethnicity. Democrats have led the “war on poverty” for 60 years, and Hispanic unemployment has only gotten worst.
Of course, there is the immigration issue that the mainstream media and the liberal establishment seem to harp on constantly. They feel all Hispanics are the same, and therefore all Hispanics are concerned about immigration. The truth is there are many kinds of Hispanics. There are Hispanics of Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican. and other national decedent. There are African-American Hispanics, Native American Hispanics, and European Hispanics. There are also high-, low-, and middle-income Hispanics; and there are Hispanics that recently immigrated (legally and otherwise) and Hispanics whose ancestors have lived in the U.S. since before Jamestown. The bottom line is that Hispanics are NOT all the same.
Hispanics like Cruz, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Texas Congressman “Quico” Canseco, and Texas state senator John Garza are part of a new breed of Hispanic politicians who have been elected with Tea Party support because they are conservative, NOT because they are Hispanic. Critics claim they are not “Hispanic enough,” but we should ask “what is Hispanic enough?” Is it someone with the last name Fisher or Van de Putte? Or is it someone who claims to be Hispanic but does not speak Spanish? Or is it someone who plays the race card to progress politically?
Hispanics want political leaders who are American first, and who support their values of family, God, and country. Hopefully the mainstream media and the Spanish language media are listening.
Reports of the Tea Party’s death may be a bit premature, given Tuesday’s victories by candidates who embrace Tea Party values. The stunning primary run-off elections here in Texas can be called nothing short of the return of Tea Party Power!
The Tea Party movement began in the hearts and minds of average, conservative citizens, most of whom had never been politically active, but who felt betrayed by their government and the empty promises made by their politicians. The movement grew through popular group rallies and seemed to peak in the off-year elections of 2010. What followed, as reported in the liberal press, was the death of the movement. What those liberal reporters and pundits didn’t see was these same grassroots patriots had traded in their colorful protest signs for more sophisticated activism in neighborhood groups, canvassing, telephone banks, and get-out-the-vote drives. And thus, in record numbers, they transformed what is usually a sleeper—a run-off for a primary election—into a rout for a number of Tea Party-styled candidates.
In a race that received national attention, former TX Solicitor General Ted Cruz won the run-off with TX Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst. Both touted their conservative credentials, but in the end Cruz won an impressive victory, backed by conservative icons such as former AK Governor and GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin, former PA Senator Rick Santorum, and FOX News commentator Sean Hannity, among others. Dewhurst’s backing by other conservative, though more establishment, GOP figures such as TX Governor Rick Perry, couldn’t hold off the grassroots tidal wave of support he received from within TX and outside the state.
Locally, Dr. Donna Campbell of New Braunfels handily retired long-time incumbent Senator Jeff Wentworth in the GOP’s 25th Senate District run-off.
In other GOP run-offs, Christi Craddick (also an SATP supporter) beat Warren Chisum in the run-off for Railroad Commissioner. Conservative incumbent Barry Smitherman won over Greg Parker for an unexpired term as Railroad Commissioner. Also, Conservative John Devine beat David Medina in the Supreme Court Place 4 race.
While the SATP by law cannot endorse candidates, our individual patriots worked tirelessly on behalf of those candidates who held views consistent with Tea Party values, including Mr. Cruz and Dr. Campbell. While all candidates of all parties are invited to SATP events, Mr. Cruz had met with SATP patriots early in his campaign and attended a candidate forum sponsored by SATP in July 2011. Dr. Campbell is also a well-known to SATP patriots as a frequent attendee at SATP events. We congratulate these two on their victories and, more importantly, their unequivocal support of conservative constitutional and Tea Party values.
On the Democratic side, Paul Sandler defeated Grady Yarbrough to take on Ted Cruz for the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring GOP Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. On the local scene, State Representative Pete Gallego of Alpine defeated former-times-two U.S. Congressman Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio to face Tea Party-conservative Congressman Francisco “Quico” Canseco in the 23rd Congressional District.
For additional information on these elections, visit the TX Secretary of State election websites: http://enr.sos.state.tx.us/enr/results/july31_162_state.htm?x=0&y=1824&id=998 and http://enr.sos.state.tx.us/enr/results/july31_163_state.htm.
Conservatives at the core of the Republican Party are coalescing behind likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney faster than expected after a punishing primary season in which they loudly sought someone else — almost anybody else — to carry the fight to President Barack Obama.
They’re opposed to Obama more than they like, trust or accept Romney as the party’s standard-bearer. And they recognize that the former Massachusetts governor is their only real choice.
“I’m going (to support him) because it’s my responsibility and, frankly, almost anything is going to be better than Obama,” said Steve Troxel, chairman of the Lynchburg Republican Party in swing-state Virginia.
According to Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., “There are some conservatives who are not ready to trust Mr. Romney to do the right thing, but they all trust President Obama to do the wrong thing.”
“Right now,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said of the shift, “Obama is driving it.”
In interview after interview over the past week, conservative activists say that they know the election will be close — and that Romney needs them to do more than merely lay down their vitriol over his wobbles on abortion, government spending, health care and gay marriage. He needs them to campaign for him, to contribute to him, to get themselves and their friends to the polls Nov. 6 and to cast votes for him, not just against Obama.
Many conservatives clearly are not there yet, but the GOP base is undeniably shifting toward Romney, helped along by post-primary developments that could escalate in the Republicans’ favor this summer.
The troubling economic report that showed slower-than-expected job growth injected some urgency into the coalescence, conservative leaders said. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s survival of a recall vote buoyed the spirits of this core constituency. Next week, a Republican could win Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ House seat in Arizona’s special election. The Supreme Court could overturn Obama’s health care law this month. And if Romney chooses a bedrock conservative for a running mate, that’ll help, stalwarts say.
So among conservatives, there’s hope for change in their feelings toward Romney. And, there’s this possibility that serves as reassurance for some still on the fence:
“The emerging consensus among conservatives is that the Republican House will lead the conservative charge and Romney will be in the White House to sign bills, rather than advance his own agenda,” said Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak, who supported Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the primary. “Conservatives don’t universally claim Romney as one of their own, but they appear to have united behind him, perhaps reluctantly, but without question.”
For now, though, ask how excited they are about Romney as president, and they’ll say it depends.
“I’m not sure people really know where Romney is on some of the important issues,” said Tom Daxon, former chairman of the state GOP in solidly Republican Kansas. “For crying out loud, I don’t.”
The fact that the anyone-but-Romney crowd is now trying to find reason to support him is a stark shift from the beginning of the year. Then, a stream of suitors — Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul among them — told conservatives that they presented sharper contrasts with Obama than Romney on everything from abortion to the top issue on voters’ minds, jobs and the economy.
But Romney outlasted them and last week topped the 1,144 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination at the party’s national convention in August.
Even before then, polling showed notable shifts toward Romney among three key voter groups.
More Republican women are choosing Romney, the research suggests. A May AP-GfK poll showed 87 percent of Republican women favored Romney, up 5 percentage points from February, while Obama’s numbers stayed the same among the group. And a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted later in May found Romney’s favorability among GOP women grew from 59 percent favorable in April to 80 percent now.
Evangelicals, too, are warming to Romney, who is Mormon. White evangelical Protestants support Romney 77 percent to 22 percent for Obama, according to the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, on par with 2008 GOP nominee John McCain’s 74 percent to 24 percent among that group. That’s up from Romney’s 65 percent to 26 percent advantage among that group in April.
Southern conservatives, too, are reconsidering Romney, polling shows. A rolling tracking poll by Gallup showed Romney inching further ahead among Southerners, from a 50-42 advantage for April 11 through May 6 to a 52-40 lead three weeks later.
Even if the not-Romney search is over, Romney still must find ways to prod the base of his own party to actively support him. He has already dispatched a cast of surrogates who have more credibility with conservatives to make the case for him, such as House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Romney himself has made multiple gestures of reconciliation to conservatives. At evangelical Liberty University last month, he spoke of values like faith and family. When he’s in Washington, he meets regularly with conservative groups and leaders.
Romney campaign aides met last week with key members of the Republican Study Committee, the most conservative members of the House, to see how the former governor can better connect to the base. Romney’s outreach is possible, several of those interviewed said, because he never antagonized conservatives.
“Even though it got feisty during the primary, Mitt himself was personally very engaging and didn’t show anger or rancor in his speeches,” said American Conservative Union Chairman Al Cardenas, who’s been a Romney supporter since 2007. “It never got personal with him. That shift in support was made smoother because of his demeanor.”
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As tea partyer Richard Mourdock appears set to win Indiana’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday over incumbent Richard Lugar, things are looking up for the tea party movement in the Senate.
Mourdock, currently state Treasurer, represents one of six tea party-backed candidates in Republican Senate primaries. And if several of them are able to score victories, the movement could gain great power in the Senate, The Hill reports.
Other strong tea party candidates include Rep. Jeff Flake, who is favored to win the Arizona Senate Republican primary; Josh Mandel, the GOP nominee in Ohio; and Ted Cruz, who may be part of a runoff election in Texas.
The leading tea partyers currently in the Senate are the chamber’s Tea Party Caucus founders Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Mike Lee of Utah. DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund has endorsed Flake, Mandel, and Cruz.
“In the middle of a campaign season that’s been dominated by talk of [the] presidential race, there has been a group of independent conservative candidates that is gradually building momentum and gaining support,” Matt Hoskins, a spokesman for the Fund, told The Hill. “We could have another election with an injection of the new blood of tea party conservatives in the Senate.”
Erick Erickson, editor-in-chief of RedState.com, believes that the tea party will have serious influence in the next Senate. “I don’t think they’ll have a majority of the conference, but they will have enough representation to give [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell and the Democrats a serious headache,” he told The Hill.
