How Cruz beat Trump
By targeting evangelicals and libertarians from the very start, he dominated from the two most reliable Iowa voting blocs.
Meanwhile, Cruz’s father, Pastor Rafael Cruz, boosted his son’s name identification as he kept up an intense schedule of church visits across the state. Other campaigns were miffed that at Christian conferences over the past several years, there were often two entries under the Cruz name. But Rafael Cruz was a key entry point for pastors, whom he urged at church gatherings over the summer to take a hard look at his son.
“It’s one thing to meet a senator, it’s another thing for a pastor to meet and talk with a pastor, a guy who speaks your language, knows your heart, knows your struggles,” said Pastor Mike Demastus, who is backing Cruz. “There’s a connection point with Pastor Rafael Cruz. He’s one of us, he knows who we are. He has been, pardon the pun, a wonderful secret weapon for Sen. Cruz.”
.. Cruz put on an elaborate event in Des Moines in which he played part preacher, part therapist as he sat onstage with people who ran into legal problems over, for example, refusing to do floral arrangements for a gay wedding. Meanwhile, his campaign continued recruiting pastors.
.. After the Paris terrorist attacks of Nov. 13, national security issues damaged the political outsider image that initially pushed the pediatric neurosurgeon to the forefront, creating an opening for someone with more experience. Cruz pounced, playing up at every turn his knowledge of foreign affairs and pushing legislation to bar most Syrian refugees from coming to the United States, as conservatives grew increasingly fearful that those migrants could pose a threat.
.. “If I’m going to let Rubio redefine Cruz … we’re going to end up with open borders and cultural suicide, a mirror of what we’re seeing today. That was the galvanizing piece that brought it together.”
.. “Strap on the full armor of God,” Cruz told supporters in a New Year’s Eve conference call.
.. The voters open to Trump and Rubio received negative, contrasting information, but the Cruz campaign offered only positive messages to those also looking at Carson in the days leading up to the caucuses.