The billionaire has hardly made a secret of his background he’s a walking parody of a brash New Yorker. The question for Cruz is whether Trump is vulnerable to attack given that plenty of other campaigns have tried to go after him on similar grounds, minus the regionalism, with little success. Starting a fight over abortion, marriage for same-sex couples, and secularism hardly seems like a crazy defensive play in that context. He needs to keep Trump, who tends to draw support more easily from less religious and less ideological voters, from eating into his base at all costs. Right now, Cruz’s most important strength is that he’s largely consolidated the social conservative vote in Iowa, which is critical to turning his narrow polling lead over Trump into success in the Feb. Then there’s the question of what Cruz’s goals are in litigating the New York attack. RELATED: Three big takeaways from the raucous Republican debate in South Carolina “I understand why the New York media defends New York - that’s fine, I love New York,” Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told reporters on Thursday. Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, who moderated the debate, even mentioned her New York roots in her question to Cruz on the topic. Marco Rubio in particular has tried to portray Cruz as a panderer rather than the most pure conservative in the race, and Cruz’s fundraising in New York (including a reception at the home of a married gay couple) and his wife’s work for Goldman Sachs, which also provided a seven-figure loan during his Senate campaign, could provide ammo for his case.Ĭruz’s campaign aides pointed out the obvious after the debate: The supposed backlash over “New York values” likely looks a lot more widespread than it is because the national news media is concentrated in New York. It’s a very different South Carolina.”Ĭritics of Cruz’s approach also pointed out that he left fertile ground for attack on hypocrisy grounds. “We have a lot of in-migration from all over the country,” he said. Trump’s South Carolina campaign chair Ed McMullen predicted that the attack would fall flat even for its intended audience in the state, where there’s been significant population growth driven by northeast transplants. “We shouldn’t do that, it’s not helpful, and it signals why we as a party have lost ground in general elections,” he said. Chris Christie, made the case to MSNBC on Thursday that Cruz undermined his electability argument by pitting states against each other. Mike DuHaime, a top strategist to New Jersey Gov. Even Hillary Clinton, who represented New York as a senator, tweeted, “Just this once, Trump’s right.” Rival campaigns were happy to join the pile-on.
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