Laying the groundwork for a possible though unconfirmed 2024 presidential bid, Cruz to raise $100K for up to 25 House candidates
Early Wednesday morning, the Washington Examiner broke the story of the formation of a “20 for 20” fundraising committee with a goal to raise $100,000 for up to 25 Republican House candidates in the general election.
Jeanne Ives, Republican nominee challenging Congressman Sean Casten in the 6th district, is among the initial 25 Republicans running for the House being backed by Cruz through his new 20 for 20 fundraising committee.
Since February, Cruz has backed Ives so her being included in a fundraising committee like this is no surprise.
Yet with Cruz, who turns 50 in December doing this level of fundraising for 25 House candidates, and doing similar fundraising support among Senate Republican candidates, leaves no doubt 2024 presidential ambitions for Texas’ junior Senator, whose current Senate term is up in 2024.
Ives is among the following House Republican nominees:
- Mary Miller, IL-15
- Lauren Boebert, CO-03
- Dr. Rich McCormick, GA-07
- Randy Feenstra, IA-04
- Ann Wagner, MO-02
- Matt Rosendale, MT-At Large
- Madison Cawthorn, NC-11
- Yvette Herrell, NM-02
- Dan Rodimer, NV-03
- Jim Marchant, NV-04
- Alek Skarlatos, OR-04
- Sean Parnell, PA-17
- Wesley Hunt, TX-07
- August Pfluger, TX-11
- Chip Roy, TX-21
- Burgess Owens, UT-04
- Bob Good, VA-05
With the inclusion of Mary Miller of downstate IL-15 which is rated a “safe Republican” district, at least one of the two Illinoisans will be in Congress next year. Ives’ district is rated “Likely Democrat”.
Another interesting observation is all three Republican nomination upset winners, by virtue of winning over President Trump’s endorsed Republican, are on Cruz’s list, from CO-03, NC-11 and VA-05.
These seven House Republican candidates have yet to win the nomination to appear on the general election ballot and being the nominee is a requisite to receive the $100K:
- Bill Hightower, AL-01 primary runoff July 14
- Leo Valentine, FL-07 primary August 18, winner-take-all
- Amanda Adkins, KS-03 primary August 4, winner-take-all
- Shane Hernandez, MI-10 primary August 4, winner-take-all
- Pat Fallon, TX-04, the elected Republican county chairs (18) and precinct chairs will meet in convention to determine the Republican to replace John Ratcliffe on the fall ballot on August 8
- Paul Reyes, TX-23 primary runoff July 14
- Nick Freitas, VA-07 nominating convention July 18
Of the Republican candidates who are still competing in primaries, primary runoffs or conventions, the naming of TX-04’s Pat Fallon was the biggest surprise, as this list was the first time Senator Cruz has endorsed a candidate for the vacant TX-04 seat in Congress.
Nearly 2 dozen Republicans have been talking to Republican county chairs and precinct chairs in the TX-04 district, who will cast votes on August 8 at the convention to replace former Congressman, now Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on the fall ballot. Texas Governor Greg Abbott declined to call a special election for the remainder of Ratcliffe’s unexpired term.
External reference:
- Washington Examiner 7/8/20 article: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/ted-cruz-team-player-senator-raising-millions-for-republicans-as-he-eyes-potential-2024-bid
Where’s Oberweis?
Yes, I will be voting for him, but only because the alternative Underwood is so bad.
Prince Rupert, the Washington Examiner article pointed out one criteria Senator Cruz used for his first 25 endorsements was loyalty.
Which candidates backed him during his 2016 presidential run over other candidates.
It’s no secret Jim Oberweis backed Senator Marco Rubio for 2016 nomination.
The name missing from the list I thought was more interesting than Oberweis’ is newly minted Congressman Mike Garcia who flipped the CA-25 in May.
While Cruz likes to go with non-establishment candidates, Garcia was just that in the initial primary voting on March 3.
The Republican establishment openly backed a different candidate than Garcia, and their choice finished 3rd behind Democrat Christy Smith and Garcia (California uses the jungle primary).
The CA-25 race will be closely watched, and Cruz having a stake in Garcia early could also help him in 2024.
OH, save your Lincoln Project videos for topics directly related to President Trump and the 2020 presidential elections.
And don’t just drop a URL to YouTube in comments without introduction like you did the first time.
Laying the groundwork for a 2024 presidential bid, Cruz to raise $100K for up to 25 House candidates
Yet with Cruz, who turns 50 in December doing this level of fundraising for 25 House candidates, and doing similar fundraising support among Senate Republican candidates, leaves no doubt 2024 presidential ambitions for Texas’ junior Senator, whose current Senate term is up in 2024.
Forgive me John Lopez, but the one specific Lincoln Project video was directly related to Ted Cruz and indirectly related to Trump.
Maybe you missed the point of that ad or couldn’t make it to the very end?
The video had nothing to do with the “2020 presidential election.”
It had to do with senators, like Ted Cruz who was featured multiple times in the short video, future elections, whenever they may be.
Ted Cruz is the subject matter of this post.
It’s even in your sub-headline that is delayed in large bold font and in the body of your post!!!
Actually, it’s the congressional candidates whom Cruz is backing that is the subject of this post.
Cruz’s presidential ambitions are assumed, but not confirmed, by the Examiner reporter.
What is clear, the congressional candidates, including two from Illinois, are the actors on the stage.
Focus on the actors, not the sets on the stage, so focus on the 25 congressional candidates, and not so much the stage Cruz’s decision has place them on.
There will be more than a few places where your Lincoln Project videos will be appropriate.
From a strategic point of view, Cruz should really throw some bones at Oberweis and Davis in Illinois, but it sounds like he’s looking for a certain type of candidate.
I get that, but of these 2 dozen or so candidates, how many of them are in tossup districts?
It’s nice to back candidates you strongly agree with, but do they have any chance?
(That was not a rhetorical question, by the way, I would truly like to know.)
Whatever… it’s in the headline you wrote…. and the body of your post…. and your comment at 9:16 a.m. is about TED FREAKING CRUZ and his 2024 run!!!!!!
Your headline, the body of your article, and your comment all very specially discuss Ted Cruz 2024.
But I can’t discuss Ted Cruz in the context of how he needs to lose next time he runs for office?
I will focus on the actors unless the post’s headline, body, and comments are about the producer who put the (play?, show? movie?) together….
Correcting – As John Lopez points out in his headline, post and comments…. Ted Cruz picked people who have helped Tewd Cruz in the past and will help Ted Cruz in the future when Ted Cruz runs for President in 2024.
Ted Cruz’s selection of candidates in “Ted Cruz’s 20 for 20” has much less to do with flipping the house in 2020 and more to do with Ted Cruz helping Ted Cruz in 2024.
The first rule “Ted Cruz’s 20 for 20 Republicans Club” is to not talk about Ted Cruz….
Correcting, thank you for the question.
Concerning the races, here is how they are rated, according to Cook Political Report July 2nd rating:
TOSS-UP: GA-07, NM-02, VA-07
Lean Republican: MO-02, MT-AL, TX-21, VA-05 (incumbent lost renomination at convention)
Likely Republican: CO-03 (downgraded from Safe Republican after Congressman Scott Tipton loss)
Lean Democrat: KS-03, NV-03, TX-07, TX-23 (only Republican seat under Democrat rating), UT-04
Likely Democrat: IL-06, NV-04 (questionable, especially after decade-long extramarital affair of incumbent), OR-04, PA-17
Safe Republican: AL-01, FL-07, IA-04 (Steve King successfully primaried), IL-15, MI-10, NC-11, TX-04, TX-11
As for bones to Oberweis (IL-14) and Davis (IL-13), I’d agree, if he wants to help Kevin McCarthy more, he should do that, as well as Garcia and many other TOSS-UP nominees.
There were 22 TOSS-UP rated races, and he’s only helping in 3 of them.
Oh, don’t go mental on us.
First, own what you did and admit you are in the wrong, you threw a URL to a YouTube video in a comment from a despicable source like The Lincoln Project, no explanation, and then you try to rewrite history.
Second, had you started with explanation, or apologized for just putting a web address in comment and nothing else, I may have been amenable to let your Lincoln Project video stay. But look in the mirror to see why I trashed that one.
In future posts, NOT this one, if you put your Lincoln Project and it is remotely related to the topic of the post, it’ll stay.
But no more just cutting and pasting a web address without any written comment.
And I will admit, they way I took the Examiner view, that would mean the gist of the article is about 2024, instead of 25 races in 2020.
“Despicable source like the Lincoln Project” Dude, they are life long Republicans who put country over this new Trumped out version of the Republican Party that puts Trump above country.
“I tried to rewrite history” – lol… very hyperbolic here.
Uh, I dropped the link because this is a post about Ted Cruz and the video is also about Ted Cruz.
I didn’t know I needed to spell it out for everyone.
I’m not “trying” to “rewrite history”… lol…
“Dude, they are life long Republicans who put country over this new Trumped out version of the Republican Party that puts Trump above country.”
This is the problem that Republicans don’t get, Trump got elected for a reason.
People were tired of the same pushover candidates and voted for an outsider.
If the Republicans want to win they have to find a version of Trump that knows when not to say stupid stuff on Twitter
Just on Twitter?
What about at rallies?
What about in interviews?
What about in press conferences?
This issue isn’t *where* he is saying stupid stuff….
The issue is he says stupid stuff
This is hilarious. John, do you know how many times people put unrelated content in the comments of these posts?
Why don’t you ever delete them?
And seriously?
Despicable sources?
Do you see some of the stuff that people post in the comments?
What a joke.
So now we know that John isn’t okay with swear words or anti-Trump groups in the comments. But perfectly okay with blatant antisemitism and racism. Cool cool.
OK I should have left it as doesn’t say stupid stuff in general.
Policy wise though I can’t vote for a candidate whose party supports Marxism and defunding police and generally doesn’t like our country.
When someone says that they want to fundamentally change the country, what do you think that means?
What would you think if your spouse told you that she thinks you need to fundamentally change your relationship?
I’d rather vote for the person who might say stupid things but at least likes our country.
“I’d rather vote for the person who might say stupid things but at least likes our country.”
Wait… you don’t think Biden likes this country?
Seriously?
Why do you think he doesn’t like our country?
I am not sure Biden knows what he thinks anymore!
The Left, beginning in the New York Times are saying Biden shouldn’t debate.
He’s 77 years, 6 1/2 mos old and he was showing his mind was breaking down a year ago!
What I’ve seen what Biden wants to do for our country is devastating, which is more reason we must reelect our President Donald Trump to FOUR MORE YEARS!
Source John?
The Thomas Friedman opinion piece (he doesn’t speak for the NYT editorial board) said he shouldn’t debate him unless conditions are met.
The truth of the matter is this:
1. Biden has agreed to debate Trump 3 times at a time, place, and choice of moderator picked by the same independent non-partisan commission that has handled this task for the last several presidential elections.
2. Trump has NOT agreed to debate Biden because he wants to have more control over one or more of the following criteria (number of debates, place of debates, dates of debates, debate moderator). I do expect Trump to come around and agree to debating Biden. But as of right now, Biden is the only one who has agreed to debate.
More sources? Sure, The Washington Post:
Karen Tumulty suggests “rethinking” the debates, urging organizers to limit their audiences “or even do away with them entirely.” Criticizing President Trump and the Republican party for their decision to attempt an in-person convention this summer, she also mocked Trump’s request to add a fourth debate, calling it “not a serious proposal.”
So Tumulty verifies about Biden’s current acceptance of the 3 debate, but said his agreement can be amended/changed.
You haven’t been around as often as I have, so I know the “non-partisan commission” is often bypassed by consent of both major campaigns.
The President will make some valid points, and while WaPo called it “not a serious proposal”, now that we have so much balloting taking place as early as late September, the President asking for a September debate is appropriate, whether it’s the 4th debate, or moving the 1st debate to accommodate voters and vote-by-mail, will be hammered out through negotiation.
Biden, and many Democrats going back to 2016, know not to get too giddy with polls during the summer.
Biden is not in any driver’s seat, and the President will set the terms through any channel the President chooses.
And if Kanye West does become a serious candidate, he may be invited to participate, too, a la Ross Perot in 1992.
But Byron York of the Washington Examiner said it best:
“Friedman column an early public statement of fear Biden will not do well in debate, suggestion of excuse for Biden to cancel while still blaming Trump. We’ll see who picks up on it.”
Oh John…. please please please keep raising the expectations on Trump clobbering Biden in the debates. not sure why Trump and every Trump fanboy is raising the expectations. I might or might now have been around longer than you but I know two things about political debates:
1. The person who is winning would like to see as few debates as possible (https://whnt.com/news/tommy-tuberville-says-he-wont-debate-jeff-sessions/). It’s not fear on Biden’s part. It’s what people who are winning the race would like to do.
2. Each side should be raising the expectations of their opponent and lowering the expectations of their own candidate. For some reason, Trump and his fanboys don’t get that. I think we are at the point where if Biden doesn’t literally drool all over himself and piss his pants on stage then he’ll exceed expectations you guys have set and he will be declared the winner.
The polls are different now than in 2016 for a few reasons:
1. Hillary never had this big of a lead
2. Hillary never got to or above 50%
3. The problem with 2016 and the lessons from 2016 was we needed to focus more on state polling than national polls.
4. Trump is now the incumbent
Biden is not in any driver’s seat?
He is in THE driver’s seat.
He can still crash and burn and a lot can happen but he couldn’t be in better shape than he’s in now.
Kanye West?
Come on… every time you seem like you know what you’re talking about you say something insane like Kanye West might be a serious candidate (or the GOP will run ads this fall against Nancy Pelosi’s choice of ice cream)
3.5 And Trump is getting killed in the state polling along with national polling.
To be honest, I think Biden is being used, as are most of the more moderate traditional liberals.
The far left wing of your party is trying to take over and Biden is the way in.
Who he picks as a running mate will show a lot.
Quite honestly I think the the far left is winning, as evidenced by the wide spread rioting, looting and taking over of neighborhoods is being supported by elected officials.
The far left can try to take over our party, I guess, but we picked Joe Biden.
Obviously the right wants a narrative that the far left is taking over the party.
Obviously the right hears it and eats it up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It’s much easier to run against a scary “far left angry mob” than the guy we actually picked.
The problem is no one but the Fox News crowd thinks the far left is taking over the Dems because… we picked Joe Biden over Bernie Sanders for a reason.
But go ahead and try to run with AOC as the de facto leader… no one is buying it except for the people in your echo chamber.
So I guess now it’s “Well they picked Joe but he doesn’t know up from down and really he has to report back to AOC and really she and Bernie are the ones really in charge!”
Desperate times call for desperate narratives….
That’s one concern.
Another one is that, what if AOC and her buddies try to have him declared unfit to be president because of his mental deterioration and then whoever is VP really is in charge.
Not a crazy theory at all, it’s very possible.
And the media has been pushing AOC as the future of the party.
This isn’t new started over a year ago
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/06/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-focus-group-cnntv/index.html
Do a quick Google for “AOC future of the party” and there is no shortage of recent results either.
Too many to pick from.
So, you only fool yourself if you think the left wing of the democrats isn’t attempting, and so far succeeding in a take over of the party.
Neal – who will be the leader of the GOP if this holds up as another blue tsunami?
I can’t see how I’m kidding myself that the left wing is taking over the party since Biden just dominated Bernie after it became a heads up match between the two of them.
The biggest fear was the moderates would split up the votes and Bernie would win.
so they all dropped out and it became clear that the Dems did not want Bernie to lead the party.
I’m guessing you are dismissing the obvious reality of the situation because Fox News and the right wing media needs to promote this false narrative.
I think it’s fair to say that there is pressure from the right wing and pressure from the left wing to take control of the GOP and DEM parties, respectively.
To pretend it’s only one party that is moving away from the middle is silly.
With that said, the current US Dem party would be a right of center party – even after a leftward swing – in most other countries.
Also, as Oh said, the way that Biden ended up crushing Bernie is a pretty good indicator that the left wing hasn’t come anywhere close to taking over the party.
And I say that as a member of the left wing of the party.
You are correct, that is exactly what got us Biden over Bernie.
That is exactly why the left is basically demanding the VP spot.
I agree that the average democrat doesn’t agree with the bernie crowd on most things.
Thing is that if you give them the vp slot with biden, they will just keep wanting more and more.
The far left openly says they won’t stop until they tear down the system.
Why would you give them the number two spot in the country if you don’t agree with them?
What left candidate is the left wing pushing for VP?
And what left wing VP possibility do you think Biden is considering?
The only person close to that definition in the conversation has been Warren, and the Bernie/AOC wing isn’t pushing her.
Until George Flyod I probably would have said Warren but now he has promised us a black woman so I’m waiting to see who he picks.
That’s why I said who he picks will say a lot.
If he picks someone down the middle I’m wrong but whoever he picks should be considered as a possible future president more than usual.
There are zero black women that I have seen discussed that would fit at all in the “left wing” category.
Depends on what you call left wing.
If you can’t be on record as supporting police and instead are showing support to people who are tearing statues down that you are left wing. My logic is the same as the lefts.
If you don’t say something about it, you are supporting it.
Cruz beat the Democrat candidate for Senate, the moron/imbecile named Beto O’Rorke in 2018. Saw Beto in so-called Democrat presidential debates in 2019. Incredible that this moron/imbecile got votes in TX. Must be something in the water there. Saw,heard some of the positions of this moron in the debates. The Democrat Party should rightly dissolve or move toward obscurity what with their top people such as Beto, dufus/dope Biden, AOC, Nancy, Schumer who threatened Supreme Court Justices, Durbin, the Squad Ladies, their position on defunding and doing away with the police all over the nation, etc, etc, etc.
Is there anybody of sound mind and reason who would vote for any Democrat candidate anywhere given the outlandish and anti-American, anti-civilization remarks and positions of Democrats around the Nation? “Sound mind and reason”.
Exactly. I don’t care how bad you think Trump is, there is nothing he can do that is worse for our country than being partners with people who think America is fundamentally bad.
Nothing that has happened in the last 3 1/2 years is even close to supporting these people.
At 3:44 PM Oh on said:
“The far left can try to take over our party, I guess, but we picked Joe Biden.”
Yes. You and Democrat voters had a pathetic bunch of losers to pick from such as Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris, etc. The Democrat Party has deteriorated vastly. Many decades ago that Party, in spite of their racism and support for slavery in the 19th Century had decent candidates and presidents such as Harry Truman and John Kennedy. But, those days are long gone. Truman and Kennedy were American patriots. But not today. The Democrat Party, because of their part in slavery and John Crow must disband and/or change their name and their far, far, far left wing communist ideas prevalent today.
Oh on, Trump is the Zionist candydate. Even AOC will agree with that.
If Trump loses, that’ll be OK with me.
The sclerotic GOP will trot out gay boys like Rubio or Graham….. but real nationalists will certainly arise.
And they won’t be like Trump I assure you.
And the US will break up, like it ought to have for good in 1861.
Had it done so, slavery would have been abolished before 1870, just like Brazil.
And half the country would have stayed out of WWI and WWII……. a much different world.
That’s why the zionists murdered Huey Long.
There’s been a Deep State here far longer than the whacking of JFK.
Why do these leftist idiots keep pointing to polls? There’s so many Trump people who ‘say’ they won’t vote for him, but actually do!
Of course the Reds may wish to outlaw secret ballots
next, just like they did in the USSR and its satellites.
An amendment to above…….. if WWI had turned out differently, especially in Russia, there may well have never been a European part of WWII.
Maybe Biden will bring himself to choose Stacey Abrams?
Conf. AF +1 agreed, now all we need to add to the pile is Oprah, round it out real nice…
The dufus dementia laden Joe Biden with a history of making racist remarks, giving unwanted kisses and touches to women, wrong on most issue of foreign, accused of rape by a former staff member, almost kicked out of college for plagiarism, etc, also discriminates against males. Instead of saying he will consider all women AND men of any race, ethnicity, religion, etc and seek the most qualified for the job of vice president, he said he would limit his search for the job to women.
Yesterday, the dufus Biden plagiarized a part of Trump’s 2016 campaign platform.
Oh on, why do you run the McHenry Co chap. of the Kevin Spacey Fan Club