SALEM, N.H. -- As Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) campaigns across the Granite State ahead of next Tuesday’s first-in-the nation primary, he’s changing rhetoric in an attempt to expand his base and attract libertarian-leaning supporters following Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) exit from the race this week.
Cruz won the Iowa caucus this week following a similar path to victory as previous winners, heavily relying on evangelical Christians and strong conservatives. Now, the Texas Senator is working to appeal to a different group in New Hampshire.
“We are seeing so many Rand Paul supporters and libertarian leaders uniting behind this campaign,” Cruz said openly to a standing-room only crowd at Lancaster Elementary on Friday night.
Instead of sprinkling religious references at every turn, a tactic that carried him to victory on Monday, Cruz is now energizing supporters with his rhetoric on privacy, limited government and gun rights.
“New England," he said, was founded as a land where people “were meant to be free, not have the government dictate our fight.”
“We need to defend the fourth and fifth amendments, the rights to privacy,” Cruz said with bravado, as supporters erupted in applause at a campaign stop inside a Toyota dealership in Portsmouth on Thursday morning. “Please leave your cell phones on, I want to make sure President Obama hears every word we say here,” he added.
Cruz vigorously courted libertarians publicly and privately throughout 2015, contributing to Paul’s slow motion collapse. This fall, the campaign released a video of past Ron Paul supporters talking about why they are supporting Ted Cruz and not the former Texas congressman's son. That same video is being played repeatedly before all of Cruz’s campaign events in Iowa.
Ron Paul warned Republicans on Friday not to vote for Cruz .
“They think he’s for the free market, and he’s owned by Goldman Sachs,” he told Fox News. “He and Hillary have more in common than we have with Trump or anyone else.”
Earlier in the week, Ron Paul also called Cruz a “real libertarian fake” and told The Washington Post, that he resented the “idea of Cruz claiming he can get the liberty vote.”
Despite these remarks, New Hampshire voters who had supported Rand Paul seemed to still feel comfortable making the switch over to Cruz.
“I was kind of upset when Rand Paul dropped out,” said Matthew Nikitas from Windham, New Hampshire. “I guess I’ll just go with Ted Cruz. I like him more than most of the other Republicans.”
Derek Lafleur of Londonderry, New Hampshire, who identifies himself as a libertarian, was a major Ron Paul supporter four years ago but said he’s been solid in his commitment to voting for Ted Cruz for about three months.
“Four years ago when Ron Paul ran for president, I whole heartedly supported him and I volunteered for him,” Lafleur said. “When Rand Paul came around this year, I think he's very much the same as his dad. The difference this year is that I think there's much better choices this time. I'd go for a Ted Cruz rather than one of the Pauls.”
In order to appeal to voters like Lafleur, Cruz is focusing his message on the themes of defending the constitution, economic freedom and privacy in his bid for a strong finish in the Granite State.
“There are a whole bunch of areas that the federal government has no business sticking its nose in,” Cruz said at a campaign stop in Hooksett. “I will fight everyday for you, for your freedom, for your right to run a small business, for economic growth and for keeping government the heck off your back.”
The GOP hopeful is now devoting much less time to foreign policy, still calling for American leadership in the world, but shying away from past comments like pledging to “carpet-bomb [the Islamic State] into oblivion.” Cruz seems to be aware that he’s crisscrossing a state known to be the second-most secular in the country, downplaying social issues that he used to emphasized in his bid to win over Iowa’s evangelicals. The Texan still quoted some scripture, but those mentions were shuffled toward the end of his remarks.
“Scripture tells us there’s nothing new under the sun,” Cruz said, a line he regularly used in speeches across the Hawkeye state. “I think where we are today is very, very much like the late 1970s, like the Jimmy Carter administration. Same failed economic policies, same misery, stagnation and malaise.”
The HuffPost Pollster places Cruz in second, behind Donald Trump, in the national Republican primary and fourth in New Hampshire, where the billionaire businessman also leads.
Despite Trump’s lead in the polls, Cruz doesn’t believe that his path to the presidency will be short lived, despite statistics showing his win in Iowa this week is very similar to the caucus victories of Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, who could not gain traction in other early primary states.
“Part of the reason we are more competitive in New Hampshire than the typical conservative is, we’ve got enough support on the libertarian side that it backfills,” Cruz said said last week.
“Iowa, you’ve got more evangelicals, New Hampshire you’ve got more libertarians,” Cruz continued. “ Why I talk about the Reagan coalition so often is, most candidates are either, conservatives compete in Iowa, moderates compete in New Hampshire. Usually you can’t do both.”
Also on HuffPost:
