The Indiana Primary

I spent the weekend working on the ground in suburban Indianapolis for the Cruz Campaign. I love this work. It was the most personally meaningful weekend of campaign work that I have ever done. More on that later.

An Indiana roadside strategy meeting of Cruz Crew members from all over the USA.

My seat of the pants assessments have been correct, so far. After working in Wisconsin, I felt confident and we won. After working a day or two in Kansas, I knew we would win and we Cruzed (I had to go there). I was confident in Iowa too but I knew half of the crew of thousands of volunteers and all of the staff in the state, so my internal gut check poll was spot on. On the contrary, after experiencing the hate and bigotry of the south, I was confident that they would ride the wave of unprincipled Trump support. I was correct in that assessment too. 

This all leads me to Indiana. My seat of the pants estimate is similar to Wisconsin. The poll numbers are all over the place. I'm not entirely sure what good those polls do. Some have Cruz up big, some show the same for Trump and one puts the race in a statistical tie. Put them in a blender and you come out with a tie. I think this is where our vaunted ground game comes in. We have what no other Republican has ever had. A true nationwide network of people that will drop everything and go anywhere to help Ted Cruz advance principles of limited government, strong national security, economic growth and personal freedom. Jobs, Freedom and Security. 

Proper literature placement is critical

The addition of Carly Fiorina to our campaign has energized many younger voters and was met with a good results when talking to most voters on the ground. She seems to do well among younger women especially and among people who actually pay attention to the direction of the country and want to fix what's wrong generally. Those who just want to tear things down(read Donald Trump supporters) couldn't care less.

It has become clear to me that the majority of Trump's support is not rooted in anything but moral bankruptcy. There is a general malaise in the country that Trump tapped into. I understand that part. This is where I may make some people mad. I think many people are leading such morally bankrupt lives that Trump makes them feel OK about their own situations. They see Trump as being this vulgar but strong figure that will push away any vestiges of moral society, thereby allowing them to continue in their sin filled ways without feeling any judgement or justice. It truly is a cult. No amount of evidence presented matters to them because they don't care about evidence or facts. Only Trump can solve. (I almost broke my own fingers as punishment for typing that last sentence).

Yesterday, in my Adult Bible Fellowship class in church, we talked about compromise. Compromise is a tool of the devil. I've known that in my core for many years. It has taken this election cycle to hone that knowledge to the point where I had to use it to cut through the mess that is the Trump cult. To compromise on deeply held, bible backed principles is sin. To engage in moral equivocation is sin. To let morally bankrupt people lead you astray is not biblical. Trump supporters must be called out. If I was being led astray, I would hope one of my friends would step in and steer me back in the right direction. I know my pastor would. 

When talking to Trump supporters, I always try to ask them why they support the con man Donald. Many respond with trite things that are more akin to what a cultist might respond with when defending their cult leader. When challenged to defend themselves in a meaningful way, they lash out with physical actions like door slamming, threats, vile language or lies. There is a manifest evil that has crept in. I know that the word evil is rarely used in modern society because it conveys something that is not talked about much but it must be applied in the case of TrumpCult.

Perhaps the greatest evidence of this evil showed up this weekend. I have a 14 year old friend who was a part of the group that I was door knocking with that distilled Trumpers, as he calls them, to their essence. He walked up to me after a particularly rude and hateful Trump supporter slammed a door in his face and said this, "Why are they so evil? Why are they so wicked?". I wish I could give him a concrete answer. His answer was correct. He said. "They need Jesus." To that, I can only add an Amen.

Indiana, you can be a firewall for liberty and decency. Stand up to the Trump cultists. Stand for what is right. Choose the light over the dark. Choose moral uprightness over moral bankruptcy. Choose good over evil. Choose Ted Cruz over Donald Trump. 

PS: I want to thank Marlin, Mitchell, Denver and Taylor Bontrager for all of their hard work over the weekend. It didn't seem like work to me because I was doing it with people that I've grown to care about and that share the same spiritual and patriotic goals as I do. Here's to another weekend on the campaign trail with friends.

At the taping of the Cruz/Fiorina Townhall in Indianapolis(to my left, your right, were Taylor, Denver and Marlin Bontrager)

Mitchell was in line to ask a question but they ran out of time

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Governing (Said An Octave Lower)

Senator Ted Cruz(R-TX) speaking before Iowa voters

As I've said before, being involved with a campaign has been quite educational, to say the least. I've attended Republican Party events, both around Iowa City and Johnson County and across Iowa. There is a marked difference in the type of people that are Ted Cruz supporters, staff and volunteers and the run of the mill Republican party types. Our people are ready to run through walls and crawl over broken glass to help Ted Cruz because they see him as someone who will not back down when the going gets rough and he will be committed to the principles he holds. In meeting with him away from the media, I can confirm that to be true. That is what I find so refreshing about Ted Cruz. He is who he is and it doesn't change when a camera or prospective voters are in front of him.

Contrast this to your typical Republican party apparatchik. This kind of person is concerned with keeping the Party in power, no matter who the candidate is. I used to agree with this "party over person" mantra. After seeing Washington, DC up close and being around members of the party at local and state levels, I can no longer do this. The party needs to start being committed to something other than just doing a better job of managing the decline of this great nation. I guess the best way to describe why I'm a party member is this: I am a Republican because it is a means to achieve a goal, not the goal itself.

Local Republican leaders in many counties are just involved so they can say they are involved. Frankly, their lack of principle is appalling. All they are interested in is being in charge. Nothing more. Reform is not something that falls into their lexicon. Many are content to manage the decline of a great nation, so long as they are in power. This makes my head hurt with the power of thousand migraines.

I live in a state now that is mainly led by corporatists. Many of the Democrat and Republican elected officials are just fine with wasting huge amounts of money, all while protecting certain hand-picked businesses and causes. They put the weight of government behind lobbied interests, all in the name of "governing". I've had it. Either come out of the closet as a big government progressive that wants to control people and business or find a backbone and stand up to these evil ways of doing government business as usual. I want to use another reference about a bathroom but I will refrain because kids may read this.

I will remain a member of the Republican party but I will only support candidates that I think are the embodiment of what I hold true. Limited government, low taxes, religious liberty, a strong national defense and foreign policy and reformed(preferably shuttered) regulatory agencies at the federal level. I encourage you to support, either by volunteering or monetarily, only candidates that share your values. Give nothing to a party that doesn't share your values until they see the error of their ways.

Only one person running has shown that he has the backbone to get this done. His strength is contagious, as you saw in the last debate when, with one unprepared answer, he won the debate while standing up for the other people on stage with him. That man is Ted Cruz. I urge you to support Ted Cruz. His support base in Iowa is growing exponentially, as it is across the nation. The people backing him come from all walks of life, unlike some supposedly preordained candidates that can only manage 4 volunteers out of 70,000 phone calls. I average 1 volunteer for about 35 phone calls. The other ratio is 1 in 17,500. The difference is quite telling. People are getting to know Ted Cruz for the person he is rather than the person the establishment has labeled a whacko bird. Count me as a whacko bird if you want but don't count on my support if you run squishy candidates that campaign as conservatives, yet once in office, GOVERN(imagine this said in a baritone voice) as progressives.

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Ted Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz and me at an event in Iowa.

This Presidential Campaign Has Been Educational

Senator Ted Cruz in Waterloo, IA

As many of you know, I am a part of the Cruz for President campaign here in Iowa. In Iowa, people treat politics like many people in Texas treat football, as Senator Cruz has so often said. There is a popular notion here that if a candidate won't come and talk to the average, everyday voter, they don't deserve the support of the average, everyday voter. I don't think people in Iowa truly know how good they have it. I think this will be Donald Trump's undoing here. He holds huge(yuge, in Trumpese) rallies and doesn't actually speak to individual caucus goers. While to many, Iowans may seem entitled to be the first in the nation to weigh in on the election, they do take it seriously. Senator Cruz is at home in front of huge crowds, tiny little coffee shops or the lobby of the Dutch Country Inn in Kalona, IA.(Shameless plug for a friend of mine that owns the place)

I have had a chance to be around many of the Republican candidates, aside from Senator Cruz, and doing so has only strengthened my resolve in helping Ted win the nomination and then be elected President of the United States. I've met Rick Santorum(nice man), Bobby Jindal(very good guy), Mike Huckabee(spent too much time on TV, probably should have stayed there), Rand Paul(different?) and Carly Fiorina(sort of contrived). I've seen Jeb Bush(stilted and has no business seeking this nomination) speak in person. With all of that as a preface, Ted Cruz is unlike any other politician or public figure I've ever met. He is comfortable in his own skin. Many of these people would make a decent president. To be fair, a can of PBR would be better a better president than what we have now.

But I digress. Ted Cruz has shown himself to be the most highly educated man to ever seek office, yet he is also incredibly down to earth. He is never uninformed about a question asked by a random event attendee. I can vouch and say that no one that comes to Ted's events are there because they were planned plants to ask questions that he had already prepared answers for. Those of us involved with the campaign specifically stay out of the way when he speaks so that people that aren't as familiar with him get a chance to ask anything they like.

I've also had the chance to sit with Senator Cruz in a small group setting of just staff and volunteers. He doesn't change when the media isn't around. He treats everyone with respect and asks that we speak freely and with no filter. He listens and then speaks with an authority on the issues that I have never seen. His answers aren't focus grouped to death. His answers are sincere because they are based upon principle.

Ted Cruz talking to a group of staff and volunteers.

To illustrate this more completely, I was at the Iowa Grassroots Coalition Honest Assessment Forum this past Saturday. Ted Cruz was the headliner at the event(even if it wasn't billed that way). Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee also attended. Ted Cruz arrived early so that he could speak to the attendees before going on stage. Once on stage, he owned the room. The format was such that most of the time was reserved for questions of candidates. All three candidates answered the questions with little hesitation but only Ted was able to stir the room to standing ovations and sustained applause. After he spoke, he jumped down (literally) off the stage and headed back to talk to the people in attendance. Frankly, I felt bad for the two that had to follow him. Many left after Ted spoke.

I was amazed by the way that people that I know from Twitter and Facebook that were tacit supporters of Ted Cruz but had never seen him away from the Senate or a more formal setting reacted when his townhall event in Council Bluffs, IA was broadcast on CSPAN last Friday night. He also took open phone calls. People all across the country were able to see what I saw the first time I met Senator Cruz. He doesn't change. He doesn't have a private or guarded persona that changes when he is in front of the public or media. He is also a huge movie buff. He loves to quote movies and has held true to Reagan's use of humor when he is campaigning too. He often remarks that we should be happy warriors for liberty because we know that our cause is just. I can't agree more.

Another opportunity being involved with this campaign has afforded me is being able to meet people that I would not have had a reason to meet before. At a meeting recently with Iowa and nationally known talk radio host/columnist Steve Deace, I was not only fortunate enough to meet the aforementioned Deace but I also ran into Marlin Bontrager and his son Josh. I had seen them and the rest of their family perform at a religious liberty rally that Senator Cruz held in Des Moines back in August. Marlin and I talked and found out that I lived only ten minutes north of them and that I was looking for a church to attend during my time in Iowa. He invited me to church at Marion Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, Iowa. I took him up on his invitation. I was blown away. The church is the most alive church I've ever been to. I'm hooked. I can't see attending any other church. The welcome I received was unconditional and overwhelming. At the end of that first service, I was invited to come to dinner at the home of Marlin and his wife Becky. Oh, they have 10 children, 5 of voting age. A better group of children, I've never met. I had an amazing Sunday dinner and a great few hours of fellowship. The family travels the country and sings gospel music when they aren't farming just north of Kalona, IA. They are all huge supporters of Senator Cruz, by the way. If Senator Cruz wins Iowa by 7 votes, we'll know who made the difference.

With Senator Cruz's steady rise in the polls and his amazing group of staff, volunteers and donors behind him, I can feel the momentum building behind this campaign. I encourage all liberty minded folks to join the effort.

My involvement in this campaign has solidified my thoughts on remaining politically active for the rest of my life. I may not be cut out to hold office but I think, by supporting good and virtuous leaders and then holding their feet to the fire once they are in office, I can help in my own little way. I encourage all of you to do the same.

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My Morning in Iowa with Ted Cruz

I've had the great pleasure of being a part of the Ted Cruz campaign organization for several months. I've had grassroots meetings with the Senator and have now had the chance to meet his wife, Heidi too. I've also made new friends. It is easy to make new friends when you are working toward a common goal and have similar ideologies. Liberty is a great rally point.

Wednesday morning, at a small hotel in Kalona, IA, I had the chance to see the loyal support that Senator Cruz has developed. This little place was packed with over 100 people and a gaggle of local and national media types(I didn't want to confuse them with the actual people). We were well over the stated capacity of this place yet no one complained (a few people from the local volunteer fire department were there). The fresh cinnamon rolls were a hit. The hosts of the event were as impressive as the candidate himself. Marlin and Becky Bontrager and their family (ten children, 5 of voting age) are huge supporters of Senator Cruz. I can speak to this family because I've had a chance to attend church with them and I also spent a Sunday afternoon at their house for a home cooked dinner and an afternoon of discussing faith and politics. The Cruz campaign couldn't have a better group of advocates.

I've also had the pleasure of getting to know the Iowa Campaign Manager, Bryan English and several of the other staff members that work out of the office in Urbandale, IA. They are great people. I also need to say hello to Lyndsey and Blue (yes, that's his given name) at the office. These two young people from Texas are great team members and great assets for the campaign. I do look forward to them enduring an Iowa winter. Blue is already wearing a coat all the time and it has only been below freezing once.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this campaign is a labor of love for everyone involved. The support continues to grow. As the Senator was leaving Kalona, an elderly woman approached me because I was wearing a campaign T-shirt and asked where she could send her campaign donation. She said that she hadn't donated to a campaign since 1984. I gave her the address in Houston and found an envelope for her. This is just one anecdotal piece of evidence that I've seen for the momentum being gathered by this campaign.

I've seen the way that the Senator interacts with the people at his campaign stops. He is incredibly sincere in his concern for the individual voters. He doesn't pander to identity groups. He speaks to ideas and principles. I challenge you find a more consistent candidate that hasn't just become a conservative since declaring their candidacy for president. He does make it known that he is working to bring together a coalition of disaffected voters that have been cast aside by the Republican party. There are over 54 million Evangelical Christians in the country and many have not voted for several election cycles at the national level because of the disdain showed to them by the Republican establishment and the Democrat party en masse. These voters are being awakened. I was announced as a guest of the Bontrager family when I attended church at the Marion Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, Iowa and the pastor specifically said that I was working with one the of the presidential campaigns and that if I were asked about it, the folks there would find I was with the right guy. Amen!

Ted has also made huge strides by bringing in many of the former Ron Paul voters in the early states. Many of Ron Paul's liberty-minded supporters in Iowa and across the nation have joined with Senator Cruz because they see a man that will do what he says he will do once elected.

I urge all of you to support the Cruz campaign. A better man has not run for this office in years. The contrasts in our current president and Senator Cruz are marked. The difference between Ted and his fellow Republican challengers are also quite stark. He has the most money of all the Republican challengers outside of the self funded (somewhat speciously) guy with bad hair, yet he is an incredibly good steward of the funds he has been blessed with. He flies coach, stays in inexpensive hotels and would rather spend those funds meeting the people that will help elect him instead of paying political leeches that would lead him astray. Let's all help elect a good man that will help reignite the fires of liberty that have been tamped out by overbearing and overarching government.

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Are You a Closet Statist?

After a so-called conservative, liberty minded Republican snapped at me today for calling out a squishy establishment moderate for what he was, I had to write, lest I let my temper get the better of me. A certain "Republican" in the presidential race said he would provide bibles to those running that were actively opposing the giant cluster (insert your favorite pejorative here) that is the Affordable Care Act/Medicaid Expansion (known as Obamacare for the remainder of this post) because Jesus would want those of us that see this law for the steaming pile of excrement that it is to see it from another point of view because it helped poor people. Frankly, I was offended by what this squishy moderate that stands for nothing said. He is using a charitable man, who was the Son of God, and asked people to give freely of themselves to go along with government coercion that ends up hurting actual charity.

Over the past few days, it has become clear to me that many people, even on my supposed side, prefer statism to liberty. Obamacare is the epitome of statist policy. Many College Republicans I've spoken to see no issue in government creating new "solutions". "Government solutions" are euphemisms for growing government and usurping liberty. Frankly, if a candidate doesn't want to take a chainsaw to the federal government, I would never support that candidate. I'm done with party politics. I'm in this to support one candidate. I want to see baseline budgets go the way of the Dodo bird. I want to see actual cuts in federal budgets, not just reductions in the rate of growth that are screamed about as if they are actual cuts by the bureaucrats.

Be very aware of the way that statists pervert language, on either side of the aisle, to fit their explicit or implicit goals. If you seen a politician use the word "sensible", that actually means draconian. If you see a politician use the word "investment", that is used as a means to grow government by spending more money. If you see a politician use the word "comprehensive", that means make government larger by writing a bill so big that it can't be read in a month of continuous study. A politician that uses the word "sustainable" generally means that he wants to find a way to limit choice and force you to pay more for goods and services. If a politician uses the word "fairness", that means redistribution of what others have earned or will earn in the future. If a politician says "bipartisanship", that means conservatives must fold and anything that is not palatable to the DC establishment is deemed as "partisan bickering".  Be wary of Washington Cartel speak and call it out where ever and when ever you see it.

Why, in what still is by most polling results a center right country, are conservatives seen as the political outliers? If these polls are to be believed, because that's what politicians do is believe polls, why are the radical leftists like Obama not ostracized? Maybe this is a reason to not believe the polls instead of a case study on the political persuasion of the citizens of this country. In either case, all that is really needed for a revolution is about 10% if the population to see the need to reignite the fires of liberty that used to burn so brightly and caused this great land to be deemed the "shining city on a hill".

A few bright spots can be seen. Senator Ted Cruz announced great fundraising numbers for the previous quarter and an even better start to this quarter. What this means is people are opening their checkbooks to fund a candidate they see as someone who can help correct the giant leftward list that has taken place over the past 7 years. All of this is being done with little news coverage from a media that is deathly afraid to cover the one candidate that will not play into their hands.

In closing, if you see a candidate that the leftist media loves and seems to be accepted in the DC social circles, run away and hide. That candidate will not be the agent of change needed in Washington, DC. For those of you that yearn for change for the better, for a return to Constitutional government and for a return to liberty, I urge you to stop supporting statists, either overt ones or those who are more covert, and support Senator Ted Cruz for President of the United States.

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By the way, if you support a Bernie Sanders, please feel free to move to Cuba, China, or North Korea and experience the fruits of total socialist policy.

Do Not Back Down

Senator Cruz with a bolt action pen I presented to him. The pen was made by my step father, CPO Bill Belitz.

I watched a hero stand and deliver on the U.S. Senate floor on Monday, September 28th. He called out members of his own party and used his own political capital to pull back the curtain on the Washington Cartel. Needless to say that the Cartel members were not pleased. That's too darn bad. When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided not to fight for a bill to fund the government with exceptions for the felonious Planned Parenthood and the catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal and instead brought up a "clean"(actually quite dirty) continuing resolution bill, he threw in with a president bent on diminishing the United States of America's position abroad and "fundamentally changing it" here at home. This hero has given the American people a voice in the Senate.

The electorate threw out the members of current regime's political party thinking that the supposed opposition party would start to change things in Congress. With the largest Republican majority in the House in decades and an eight seat majority in the Senate, the leaders of the supposed opposition decided that correcting things would be hard to do and since those hard things required actual work, they would rather not do them. Speaker of the House John Boehner has chosen to commit political seppuku instead of acting as an actual leader. On his way out the door, he showed himself to be the sophomoric loser that he is. He took pot shots, once again, at the man he sees as his foil. Sadly, his counterpart in the Senate is still entrenched in his seat of power lording over the "world's most deliberative body". Frankly, Mitch McConnell has been no better than the previous leader, "Dingy" Harry Reid. At least Harry Reid was fighting for his leftist principles he ran on. Leader McConnell is fighting against the ideas he campaigned on in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Sadly, the junior Senator from that same state has also thrown in with McConnell. There is a reason the hash tag, #DitchMitch has become popular on conservative social media.

I, for one, see only one man standing for the people that elected him. He also is standing up for the rest of us that believe in the greatness that was the USA. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas named names of the feckless establishment in the Senate after the dirty CR was rammed through. He calmly, yet quite forcefully, laid out the nature of the Republican party in Washington, DC and it wasn't pretty. Congress critters campaign as conservatives and when the get to DC, whether through planned deception or leadership coercion, they become turncoats. They say one thing in their home states and districts and do the complete opposite in Washington, DC. I, for one, am tired of it.

With all of the venom coming from "my side" of the aisle, I feel that it is imperative that we support those men and women in Washington, DC that stand with us and follow their campaign promises. In addition to Senator Cruz, Senator Mike Lee of Utah needs to be held up. Senator Lee has proved to be a quiet warrior for the Constitution and has been a great ally in the fight to save the soul of the Republic. The Freedom Caucus in the House can also be counted with those two great Senators as defenders of good governance. Outside of these 40 or so members of the Senate and House, the whole lot is a corrupt bunch of self serving politicians bent on staying in power and milking donor dollars from the udders of K Street lobbyists. This cabal of ruling class politicians needs to be broken up. One man has the will to do it.

With all this being said, my decision to support Senator Ted Cruz has become a mission. I will do everything I can to help his campaign for the White House. It is time to return the People's House to a leader that respects the office and the country that he would represent. Barack Obama has been a conduit for destructive change and it will take a great leader to start to undo the catastrophic damage done to the Republic by Comrade Obama and his band of Senators and Representatives that have given everything he really wanted. The time is now to support a leader that respects the people. The time is now for a leader that respects the nobleness of the founding of this country. The world needs a strong United States. Ted Cruz has shown himself to be ready to lead on day one. I urge you to look at all of the candidates running and evaluate them. Look at their resumes. Judge them by their fruits, as Senator Cruz says. I urge you to support Senator Cruz after doing that research. I think you'll find him uniquely qualified to lead this country in a very turbulent time. This is not the time to entrust the store to someone that doesn't have the best interest of said store at heart. Support someone that is in DC to not back down. As Senator Cruz says, if a candidate is supported by the establishment in DC, run the other direction.


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Senator Cruz talking with the #CruzCrew

One Down...

My demand that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell be removed from their positions of leadership is now half way to the goal. John Boehner is done.(cue the angelic music) Conservatives are cheering for good reason. Sadly, it looks like John Boehner has stabbed the conservatives in the back on his way out the door by making a back room deal with Nancy Pelosi to pass a "clean" continuing resolution bill to fund the government through the election next year. I guess that's par for the course for John Boehner. This shows the need to make sure you let your representative know who you support to be the next Speaker. Call (202) 224-3121 and let your representative know that you don't want another moderate squish that will stand for nothing as the Speaker of the House. Kevin McCarthy is the current name being floated. He is a Boehner protege. Urge a no vote on McCarthy.

Besides the petty parting shot by Boenher, what this whole episode shows is the power of conservatives, when speaking with a loud and clear voice, to change the status quo in Washington, DC. This is just the first battle in the war for the soul of the country. This also shows the power of a true leader that speaks for us in the US Congress. Senator Ted Cruz is the only reason that a light has been shown on the Washington Cartel. He is not afraid to stand against either party to expose corrupt Washington kleptocrats. The government has been reminded, now in no small way, that it works for the people. Not the other way around.

I want to do my small part to bring light to the darkness. I will keep writing in favor of Senator Cruz. I will make phone calls. I will send tweets and post to Facebook. I've seen his presidential campaign up close. It is filled with good, upstanding people that believe in the Senator's mission. I'm glad to be counted amongst this great group of people.

I urge you to continue your research. You will never find a more honorable man to run for political office. Senator Cruz has made a career of fighting for the rights and liberties we hold dear. Below you'll find the Senator's proven record:

Ted Cruz: A Proven Record 

Standing up for what’s right isn’t always easy. But after spending a lifetime fighting for conservative principles, Ted Cruz has proven that he will defend the values that have made America the greatest nation on Earth.

Politicians all too often promise one thing on the campaign trail, only to break those promises once elected. We should ask every candidate to prove it:

“You say you believe in these principles. Show me. When have you fought for conservative principles and what have you accomplished?”

Ted Cruz has proven he will keep his word. Whether it’s leading the charge to repeal Obamacare; fighting to finally secure the border and stop the President’s illegal and unconstitutional amnesty; introducing legislation to allow businesses and entrepreneurs to create unprecedented jobs, growth and prosperity; or fighting to defend our Second Amendment rights as enshrined in the Constitution – Ted Cruz has consistently shown that he can be trusted to do what he said.

Our Standard: The Constitution

Ted Cruz has spent a lifetime fighting to defend the Constitution — our nation’s founding document and the supreme law of the land — which was crafted by our founding fathers to act as chains to bind the mischief of government and to protect the liberties endowed to us by our Creator.

Religious Liberty

• Defended Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties against Obamacare's contraception mandate.
• Led the way on several cases including a U.S. Supreme Court case that preserved the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.
• Successfully defended the words “under God” in the Texas Pledge of Allegiance and Texas schools' moment of silence law in federal district court.
• Galvanized national support for Houston pastors who had been subpoenaed by the City of Houston to provide the content of their sermons forcing the City to back down.
• Supported the right of students to display banners containing religious content at school sporting events.
• Successfully defended the constitutionality of the Texas Ten Commandments monument, winning a 5-4 landmark decision before the U.S. Supreme Court, setting an important national precedent for the right to display similar monuments.
• Fought to help the Boy Scouts of America to reverse a district court ruling barring them from leasing a public park.

Second Amendment

• Played a crucial role in preventing federal legislation to restrict the Second Amendment rights of Americans.
• Authored legislation to strengthen the Second Amendment rights of Americans by allowing interstate firearms sales.
• Led 31 states in District of Columbia v. Heller where the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ban on firearms in a 5-4 landmark decision.
• Honored by the National Rifle Association with a 2008 resolution for his leadership in the Heller case, which noted that his "efforts made this victory for the American people possible."
• Awarded the NRA's 2010 Carter-Knight Freedom Fund, which "rewards exemplary activities in the support and protection of the right to Keep and Bear Arms" for his work in the Heller and McDonald cases.
• Argued against unreasonable and burdensome gun restrictions before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
• Recognized by NRA executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre who observed, "Ted Cruz is one of our nation's leading defenders of the Second Amendment. For over a decade, Ted has fought tirelessly to defend our constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and his leadership was absolutely critical to our major victories before the U.S. Supreme Court."

U.S. Sovereignty

• Fought and won a landmark ruling for U.S. sovereignty in Medellin v. Texas at the U.S. Supreme Court against 90 foreign nations and the President to ensure the supremacy of U.S. legal system against encroachment by international treaties and rulings of the “World Court.”
• Cosponsored a resolution urging the president not to sign the UN Arms Treaty, which would have subordinated the Second Amendments rights of American citizens to global interests.

Government Overreach

• Called for a special prosecutor to investigate the targeting of conservatives by the IRS.

Stronger, Safer America

A safer, stronger America safeguards freedom at home and across the globe. That’s why Ted Cruz has fought tirelessly to defend our nation’s servicemen and women, to restore America’s leadership in the world, and to secure our border and streamline our legal immigration system.

• Opposed the Obama Administration's dangerous deal with Iran that would allow Iran to pursue nuclear weapons. 
• Spearheaded legislation passed unanimously by Congress and signed by the President to prevent known terrorists from entering the United States as ambassadors to the United Nations. 
• Successfully pressured the Obama Administration to lift its unprecedented FAA ban on flights to Israel after exposing the move as, in essence, an economic boycott of our strongest ally in the Middle East. The ban was lifted within 36 hours of the Senator's actions
• Championed the Expatriate Terrorist Act to prevent Americans who join ISIS from returning to the United States to commit acts of terror at home. 
• Introduced legislation passed by the Senate to provide rewards for information leading to the arrest of Hamas terrorists responsible for the murder of American and Israeli teenagers. 
• Led the charge on a bipartisan resolution passed by the Senate to condemn Hamas' use of civilians as human shields. 
• Authored legislation to allow victims of the Fort Hood terrorist attack to be awarded the Purple Heart and appropriate benefits. 
• Joined Texas and 25 other states in a lawsuit to stop President Obama's illegal executive amnesty.
• Authored legislation to triple the size of the U.S. Border Patrol. 
• Authored legislation to streamline and simplify our legal immigration system by consolidating segmented visas, creating real and transparent caps, eliminating the diversity visa lottery, and treating all immigrants equally by eliminating the per-country caps. 
• Urged the strictest enforcement of laws punishing those with prior felony convictions who entered the country illegally in a U.S. Supreme Court Brief in Lopez v. Gonzales.
• Authored legislation to ensure that members of our military deployed to combat the spread of Ebola is entitled to the same tax benefits as those serving in a combat zone. 
• Promoted the strengthening of existing law to prevent discrimination or retaliation against military service members who appropriately express their religious faith. 
• Represented more than 3 million veterans before the U.S. Supreme Court in Salazar v. Buono, defending the constitutionality of the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial. Along with co-counsel Kelly Shackelford of the Liberty Institute, then-Solicitor General Cruz fought for The American Legion, The Veterans of Foreign Wars, The Military Order of the Purple Heart, and the American Ex-Prisoners of War. In April 2010, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision in favor of the veterans. 
• Defended the constitutionality of the federal Solomon Amendment, which requires universities receiving federal funds to grant U.S. military recruiters equal access to campuses, notwithstanding the universities’ opposition to the military’s policies concerning sexual orientation.
• Authored legislation to close a loophole in the federal “Motor Voter” law that preempts states from enforcing requirements that would ensure those registered to vote are U.S. citizens. 

Life, Marriage, and Family

Without life, there is no liberty. And ensuring every child is born into a home with a loving family provides the best chance for that child to achieve anything. That is why Ted Cruz has been on the front lines defending life and standing up for marriage when it has come under assault from activist judges.

• Led the charge on behalf of 13 states to successfully defend, before the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal law that bans one form of late-term abortion, the Partial Birth Abortion Act.
• Advocated for an investigation into abortion practices in the U.S. to prevent the atrocities witnessed in Kermit Gosnell’s facility from ever happening again.
• Joined 18 states in successfully defending the New Hampshire parental-notification law before the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Successfully defended in federal court Texas's Rider 8, which prohibits state funds for groups that provide abortions.

• Fought for the right of states to define marriage, without intrusion by unelected federal judges, by drafting the State Marriage Defense Act.
• Defended Texas’s marriage laws when a renegade state court attempted to grant a divorce to a same-sex couple that had obtained a civil union in Vermont.

Jobs and Opportunity

The American Dream — the idea that anyone, through hard work and determination, can achieve anything — is under assault like never before. Obamacare, an overreaching federal government, and out of control spending threaten the ability of small businesses and entrepreneurs to create jobs and innovate. This has to stop and Ted Cruz has led the way to bring back jobs, growth, and opportunity to America.

• Authored the Obamacare Repeal Act as his first piece legislation. 
• Led the fight to defund Obamacare -- the largest regulatory challenge facing our nation that has resulted in killing jobs, cutting workers' hours, and causing millions of Americans to lose their doctors or health care. 
• Authored legislation to end taxpayer dollars subsidizing corporate fat cats, including the Ex-Im Bank. 
• Opposed the Renewable Fuel Standard ethanol subsidy.
• Co-sponsored the Enhancing Educational Opportunities for All Act to expand school choice and make a quality K-12 education more accessible and affordable to low-income parents and students. 
• Authored legislation to expedite liquefied natural gas to support jobs, economic growth, and to stand united alongside our friends and allies in the face of Russian aggression. 
• Led the fight against regulating the Internet as a public utility because it threatens the Internet as a haven for entrepreneurial freedom and unlimited opportunity. 
• Set an early, high standard for meaningful Republican opposition to increasing the debt ceiling.    
• Demanded a 60-vote threshold vote on a clean debt-ceiling increase in February 2013, when Republican leadership wanted to allow the Democrats to raise the limit with a simple majority vote.   
• Insisted on a commitment from Democrats and Republicans in the Senate that the debt ceiling would not be increased as part of a deal to pass the budget .
• Introduced the American Energy Renaissance Act to spur economic growth by harnessing our nation's energy resources and removing federal impediments to energy exploration, development and trade and empowering the private sector to create good-paying, American jobs. 
• Sued the federal government to strike down portions of the Medicare Prescription Drug program as an unconstitutional intrusion in the sovereign authority of the States.
• Opposed the Obama Administration’s Interior Department's moratorium on offshore exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case and reverse a decision of the D.C. Circuit upholding congressional authority to halt commercial development of private property because of the presence of a purely intrastate species of Arroyo toads. 

As the campaign truly kicks into gear, I urge you to continue your research and if you feel as strongly as I do, to donate or volunteer for the #CruzCrew, a name we've taken to calling the large grassroots group that supports the Cruz campaign. If you have any questions regarding volunteering, please leave a comment at the bottom of this blog or send me a tweet on Twitter.