Iowa caucus: Ted Cruz victory over Donald Trump a good thing? Be careful what you wish for

Having swept aside all challengers, Ted Cruz, the conservative from Texas, was sure who deserved the praise. To God be the glory.

On a campaign already at this early stage filled with intrigue and upsets, Mr Cruz, the anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion son of a Cuban immigrant whose stump speeches court the evangelical right, secured an unexpected result in Iowa.

Already at the next frontier in his run for the Republican nomination, New Hampshire, the 45-year-old is revelling in his achievement of defeating the seemingly unassailable Donald Trump. Short of a miracle, perhaps, but Mr Cruz described his victory in the Hawkeye State as a result for “Judeo-Christian values”, a win for “conservative grass roots”. It was also the result of a steady courting, and nurturing of, the Christian right.

His victory had been secured by the votes of Iowa’s evangelicals, who are numerous. Around 56 per cent of Iowans consider themselves “strong protestants” and almost two-thirds of those who voted described themselves as evangelicals.

From his first trip to Iowa three summers ago, Mr Cruz was plotting his path to the caucuses. The Washington Post reported that his father, Rafael, journeyed to every corner of the state, “again and again”, He told the story of his emigration from Cuba and testified to his Mr Cruz’s “character, conviction and conservatism”.

According to reports, to run his Iowa campaign, Mr Cruz chose a former Baptist pastor named Bryan English who had “deep ties” to the evangelical networks. At the Cruz headquarters in Houston, a team invested several million dollars in an Iowa data analytical operation. While Donald Trump had secured the backing of Jerry Falwell Jnr, the president of the Christian Liberty University and the son of the late and influential Jerry Falwell Snr, many found the Trump’s sudden embrace of faith “inauthentic”.

There is nothing inauthentic about Mr Cruz. As solicitor-general of Texas, he defended a federal law that bans partial birth abortion. He has fought against planned parenthood.

The married father of two, who once declared “any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander-in-chief of this country”, unsettles liberals. Why? He says he will repeal “every last word” of Obamacare, and made headlines with a 21-hour filibuster to defund the medical programme. He does not believe in climate change and wants to expand oil drilling. He opposes stricter gun control and is against equal rights for transgender people.

A first-term senator and fiscal conservative from the Tea Party movement that emerged on the right six years ago, Mr Cruz has presented himself as a strong foreign policy hawk. He vowed to “carpet bomb” Isis into oblivion in a speech in which said: “I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark but we are going to find out.”

open image in gallery

In January, his campaign started a “national prayer team” to “establish a direct line of communication between our campaign and the thousands of Americans who are lifting us up before the Lord”. In addition to usual political rallies, he has appeared regularly at churches. Results from Monday’s vote show that while Mr Cruz secured the support of 33 per cent of evangelicals, Mr Trump won just 21.

Whether Mr Cruz’s social conservatism goes down as well in New Hampshire as it did in Iowa, remains to be seen. But for now, he is relishing his victory. “This is the power of the conservative grass roots,” he told CNN. “One of the greatest lies that gets told on the airwaves... is that this country has somehow embraced Barack Obama’s big government.” He added: “That’s not true. This is a centre-right country. This is a country built on Judeo-Christian values.”

Follow this link for the latest coverage of the Iowa caucus