Texas endorsements

Cruz needles Bush in Texas

The senator boasts about new Texas endorsements as the Bush family huddles with donors across town.

By Eli Stokols

Ted Cruz sent a clear message to the Bush family Monday morning, scheduling a news conference announcing new Texas endorsements just as Jeb Bush donors were gathering across town to hear from former President George W. Bush.

While insisting that he respects the Bush family, Cruz tweaked the GOP establishment and its dynastic politics and asserted that he better represents the Republican Party as it stands today.

“This state still respects the Bush family,” Cruz said after a news conference announcing Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as his state campaign chairman. “But at the same time, Texans recognize that circumstances have changed after seven years of Barack Obama in Washington. We need something different.”

Cruz, whom George W. Bush disparaged in personal terms at a fundraiser last week, asserted that conservatives would lose again if they listened to “graybearded Washington consultants” and “run to the mushy middle” by nominating another candidate “in the mold of Bob Dole, in the mold of John McCain, in the mold of Mitt Romney.”

The comment came in response to a question about why the Bush family may no longer represent an increasingly fractious Republican Party; but Cruz, when asked what specifically about Jeb Bush casts him in the mold of those past GOP nominees, asserted that he wasn’t referring to any candidate in particular.

In professing unwavering respect between himself and the Bush clan, Cruz referred to Jeb Bush’s son, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, as “one of my earliest supporters.”

Cruz, who also announced the support of Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton and the addition of six former members of former Gov. Rick Perry’s finance team (including Dallas billionaire Darwin Deason and Deason's son Doug), also needled the Bushes over his “astonishing” fundraising, noting his surprise that “we have $3.5 million more in the bank than the Jeb Bush campaign.”

Again not referencing any specific rival by name, Cruz continued to tweak Bush as a candidate whose only appeal is to the party’s donor class. “There are some other campaigns that have a lot of high-dollar donors and bundlers but not much grass-roots support,” said Cruz, noting that he has both.