Rand Paul stole the fire

Rand Paul Steals Ted Cruz’s Fire

Written by Leonora Cravotta

Rand Paul stole the fire from fellow GOP candidate Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential announcement earlier this week. Senator Cruz is the first GOP candidate to formally his run for the 2016 GOP ticket. In a moment which should have belonged to the Texas Senator, he found himself sharing the limelight with his Kentucky rival. Paul jumped into the Cruz announcement by questioning his electability. During an interview with Fox’s Megyn Kelly Paul criticized Cruz for having limited appeal beyond the conservative base. “It isn't just about rousing a base. It's about exciting the base by being for the principles of liberty, but it's then taking those principles of liberty — not diluting them — and taking them to new people and bringing them into the party. That's the way you win general elections." Paul also praised his supporters who showed up in Paul tee-shirts at Cruz’s speech at Liberty University. The Cruz campaign tried to dismiss Paul’s comments as a deliberate distraction to draw attention away from the Cruz announcement.

The rivalry between Cruz and Paul is interesting because they are both trying to be the candidate who stands for conservative principles. Furthermore, they have both employed similar tactics to get their message across with Ted Cruz participating in a 21+ hour filibuster against Obamacare in 2013 and Rand Paul participating in a similar 13 hour action against the use of drones in 2013. These actions have caused the media, the political circles and the American people to often paint them with the same brush. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) took some heat when he indirectly referred to Cruz and Paul as the GOP’s “wacko birds” in a 2013 Washington Post interview.

The Cruz-Paul rivalry brings front and center a key question for the GOP. What is more important? Being a conservative or winning the election? Paul who was the winner of the straw poll vote at CPAC with 25.7% of the vote (vs. Cruz at 3rd place with 11.5% ), seems to think that you need to focus on getting the message of standing up for liberty out to a larger audience. Consequently, he has gone out to speak to diverse audiences showing up to stump from locations as diverse as the historically Black Howard University and the SouthbySouthwest Music and Media Conference. Cruz’s commitment to conservative principles such as his strong stance against illegal immigration and President Obama’s executive amnesty order have strengthened his support with the conservative base. But that conviction has resulted in The Wall Street Journal branding the Cruz 2016 campaign “A dream come true for Hillary Clinton”, raising the electability question. For his part Cruz, has repeatedly denied that his appeal is limited to conservative base. During his speech at CPAC last month, Cruz said “The way we get to 51 percent is we bring together conservatives and libertarians and evangelicals, and women and young people and Hispanics and Reagan Democrats."

While it is still way too early to tell how the race for the GOP ticket will end and how Senators Cruz and Rand will fare as the campaign goes into full gear, one thing is certain. After eight years of President Barack Obama, the GOP is committed to retaking the White House. Consequently, they will select the candidate who has the best chance of achieving that victory. The discussion of conservative principles vs. electability is not ending any time soon.