Riots, Plagues, & Murder Hornets

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Riots, Plagues, & Murder Hornets" – The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

Episode Overview

In the June 16, 2020 episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson, host Michael Knowles engages in a comprehensive discussion with Senator Ted Cruz. The conversation delves into the tumultuous beginnings of 2020, characterized by social unrest, public health challenges, and the peculiar emergence of murder hornets, all set against the backdrop of an intense election year. The primary focus centers on the precarious balance of power in the U.S. Senate, the strategies essential for winning Senate races, and insights from Cruz’s own campaign experiences.

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Key Topics Discussed

1. Historic Senate Confirmation
2. The High-Stakes 2020 Senate Races
3. Demographic Shifts and Political Strategies
4. Ted Cruz’s Campaign Tactics and Lessons Learned
5. Advice for Future Campaigns
6. Mailbag and Light-hearted Moments

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1. Historic Senate Confirmation

At the outset (00:52), Ted Cruz highlights a significant Senate vote: the confirmation of General CQ Brown as the new Chief of Staff of the Air Force. This marks a historic moment as Brown becomes the first African American service chief in U.S. history. Cruz emphasizes the timing's importance, coinciding with George Floyd's funeral, underlining the weight of this confirmation in a nation grappling with racial tensions.

Notable Quote:

"We just voted a few minutes ago to confirm the new chief of staff of the Air Force, General CQ Brown, who is the first African American service chief in U.S. history." – Ted Cruz 00:52

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2. The High-Stakes 2020 Senate Races

The conversation shifts to the volatile landscape of the 2020 Senate races. With Republicans holding a narrow majority of 53-47, Cruz expresses concerns about the potential loss of control post-election. He outlines the complexities of the Senate’s election cycle, noting that 2020 is the six-year echo of the favorable 2014 elections for Republicans. However, the current map presents a "difficult map," with several key states—Colorado, Arizona, Maine, North Carolina, and Georgia—posing significant challenges.

Notable Insights:

• Colorado and Arizona are described as purple states with tight races involving incumbents and newly appointed senators facing tough re-elections.
• Maine and North Carolina present battleground scenarios with moderate and incumbent senators under pressure.
• Georgia is highlighted for its potentially decisive runoff elections, which could determine the Senate’s control.

Notable Quote:

"2020 is a difficult map. So if you think about it, the Senate ... we could easily lose control of the Senate in this election." – Ted Cruz 02:47

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3. Demographic Shifts and Political Strategies

Cruz and Knowles explore the demographic trends impacting the Senate races. There's a notable migration of working-class voters towards more Republican-friendly Midwestern states, while suburban voters, particularly women, are increasingly leaning left in traditionally Republican states like Texas, Arizona, and Georgia. These shifts are making these states more competitive and unpredictable.

Notable Quote:

"We've talked before about the two broad demographic trends going on in this country. Working class voters are moving ... while suburban voters are moving left ... 2020, the Senate is very much in play." – Ted Cruz 06:05

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4. Ted Cruz’s Campaign Tactics and Lessons Learned

Drawing from his 2012 Senate campaign against David Dewhurst in Texas, Cruz shares invaluable insights into running a successful campaign, especially as an underdog. He recounts how his grassroots, guerrilla tactics effectively countered Dewhurst’s heavy financial advantage and entrenched political power.

Key Strategies Discussed:

• Grassroots Mobilization: Engaging local tea parties, Republican women, and county parties to build widespread support.
• Humorous and Asymmetric Tactics: Creating campaigns like "duckandewhurst.com" where campaign staff would humorously undermine the opponent, garnering free media and public attention without significant expenditure.
• Empowering Voters: Encouraging small donations and active participation to foster a sense of ownership and investment among supporters.

Notable Quote:

"You have to find ways to take asymmetric advantage to use. And our greatest strength is that Dewhurst totally took it for granted." – Ted Cruz 12:37

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5. Advice for Future Campaigns

Cruz emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive and fun campaign atmosphere, even amidst a negative news cycle. He advises against succumbing to purely negative tactics and highlights the value of empowering voters through engagement and small contributions.

Key Takeaways:

• Have Fun in Campaigning: Avoiding excessive negativity helps in maintaining voter enthusiasm and attracting support.
• Investing in Relationships: Small favors and gestures, such as picking up volunteers at the airport, can build lasting support and loyalty.
• Grassroots Over Big Money: Prioritizing small contributions from a large base over large donations from a few wealthy individuals ensures broader support and sustainability.

Notable Quote:

"Its fun. People can tell a joyful campaign ... empower the people." – Ted Cruz 15:46

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6. Mailbag and Light-hearted Moments

In a brief mailbag segment, Knowles poses a light-hearted question about personal preferences—specifically, "Boxers or briefs?"—adding a touch of humor to the intense discussion. This segment underscores the importance of balancing serious political discourse with relatable, everyday topics to connect with the audience.

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Conclusion

The episode "Riots, Plagues, & Murder Hornets" provides an in-depth look into the complexities of the 2020 Senate races through Senator Ted Cruz’s experiences and strategies. Cruz’s insights into grassroots campaigning, the significance of demographic shifts, and the importance of maintaining a positive campaign environment offer valuable lessons for political candidates and enthusiasts alike. By focusing on empowering voters and leveraging creative, low-cost tactics, Cruz exemplifies a model of effective campaigning in a challenging and unpredictable political landscape.

Notable Final Quote:

"It's about them. It's about their families, their kids, their future." – Ted Cruz 21:55

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Timestamp References:

• 00:52 – Senate Confirmation of Gen. CQ Brown
• 02:47 – Senate Majority and 2020 Election Stakes
• 06:05 – Demographic Shifts Impacting Senate Races
• 12:37 – Guerrilla Campaign Tactics Against Dewhurst
• 15:46 – Importance of Fun and Empowerment in Campaigns
• 21:55 – Ted Cruz on Voter Empowerment

(Note: The timestamps correspond to the transcript sections referenced in this summary.)

Transcript

[Michael Knowles]

2020 has started off with a bang. We have had riots. We have had plagues. Worst of all, we have had murder hornets. And don't forget, this is an election year. So the year is only going to get crazier. Lots of seats in play, including the U.S. senate. The U.S. senate is far from safe. Luckily, we've got a guy here who knows a thing or two about winning a Senate race. We'll go behind the scenes. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Nol. And, Senator, you know, I forgot because when I come to town, I'm here doing this show. When I'm not doing this show, I'm swilling martinis, I'm smoking cigars, I'm generally loafing around.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, you are a California man.

[Michael Knowles]

I'm a California man. You don't wanna work too hard. You actually have been working. You are in session right now. You've just come from the Capitol. You had a vote today. Could you tell us a little bit about that?

[Ted Cruz]

Well, sure. We just voted a few minutes ago to confirm the new chief of staff of the Air Force, General CQ Brown, who is the first African American service chief in U.S. history. So Colin Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs, but he wasn't head of one of the service branches. And interestingly enough, a little bit astonishing. There's never been an African American service chief. And so we confirmed him this afternoon. And actually, Mike Pence, the VP presided, which is fairly unusual. Normally it's a senator from the majority party who is presiding, and the vice president comes to break a tie. And so I looked up, cast my vote, and there was Pence sitting in the chair. And so actually, Mike Lee and I, we both walked up and said, you know, hey, Mike, what are you doing here?

[Michael Knowles]

Is this gonna be a close vote?

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah. I said, look, is this gonna be 50, 50? Are we missing something? And he laughed and said, no, that it just was history to have the first African American service chief. And, you know, today being the day of George Floyd's funeral in Houston, I think it is particularly momentous to be making that confirmation. And Pence pointed out, he said, look, Trump had nominated General Brown back in March, right?

[Michael Knowles]

So it's not like he nominated him because race happens to be dominating the country.

[Ted Cruz]

He was the choice on the merits to be the Chief of staff of the Air Force. But, you know, Pence laughed and said, you know, in our House, we call that God's timing, right?

[Michael Knowles]

There's a little providential aspect to this indeed. So you mention 50. 50 in the Senate.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

This brings up some worries for November because Republicans control the Senate now. That is not guaranteed to be the case after the 2020 elections. Things are looking tight in a lot of different states. You know a thing or two about winning a Senate race. What is it looking like right now?

[Ted Cruz]

So, look, it is very much hanging in the balance. We've got right now, the majority is 53, 47. So there are 53 Republicans. But 2020 is a difficult map. So if you think about it, the Senate, you got 100 senators, they're each broken into thirds and a third are elected every two years. You got six year terms.

[Michael Knowles]

Right.

[Ted Cruz]

That means every Senate election is the echo of the election six years earlier. And so if you have a really good Republican election six years later, it can be a much tougher election if it ends up not being a great Republican year. Likewise, if you have a great Democratic year, six years later, Republicans can pick up seats. 2020 is the six year echo of 2014. 2014 was a phenomenal year. 2014 is the year we took the majority in the Senate and retired Harry Reid as Majority leader. As a result, we got a bunch of Republicans in very purple states that are tough states. And so. And right now, the poll numbers in a lot of these races are right on the bubble. Yeah, I think we could easily lose control of the Senate in this election.

[Michael Knowles]

Because everybody's focused on the presidential. I get it. That's where all the attention gets paid. Don't forget, there's a lot more to our government than just the President. It seems very important to hold the Senate to maybe retake Congress, if that were possible, to keep these local races as well.

[Ted Cruz]

And if you break it down state by state. So you take a state like Colorado. Yeah, Colorado is a tough state. It's a purple state. Trump lost Colorado four years ago. Cory Gardner is a freshman senator up reelection in Colorado. That's gonna be a tough race. Yep. Arizona. Arizona has historically been a pretty red state. It's gotten a lot more purple. Martha McSally is the incumbent, but she ran in 2018 for Senate and lost in Arizona. So the last election, Martha Law, she got appointed to the seat and she's running again. Arizona is going to be a tough, tough race. And the polling there, the polling there doesn't look great. You got a state like Maine. Susan Collins is running now, longtime senator, much more moderate than you and I are. But listen, Maine is a pretty blue state. And particularly with Trump on the ballot, I don't know how Maine's gonna go, but Susan will have a fight. There are a whole lot of liberals nationally putting a bunch of money against her. North Carolina, Thom Tillis, North Carolina is another battleground state. It's another purple state. That will be a hard fought race. We could easily lose that race. Georgia, Georgia. We've got not just one, two Senate seats up on the ballot in Georgia. So we've got David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. And Kelly Loeffler is in the middle of a tough primary race. So it's what's called a jungle primary, where in all likelihood, on election day, someone won't win out. Right. The top two people will go onto a runoff in December. We could end up with control of the Senate being decided by the Georgia runoff in December.

[Michael Knowles]

Yikes.

[Ted Cruz]

And you know, one of the patterns, if you look at states like North Carolina, like Georgia, like Arizona, one of the patterns in the age of Trump is the suburbs.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

We've talked before about the two broad demographic trends going on in this country. Working class voters are moving, right. That's moving Midwestern states, more Republican. The same time, suburban voters are moving left, that is moving states with big suburban population, states like Texas, states like Arizona, states like Georgia, much more purple because in particular suburban women. That has been a tough demographic for Trump. And so 2020, the Senate is very much in play.

[Michael Knowles]

Right. Especially when you consider those two demographics. It's very hard to pin down. Okay, this will be the effect on this state, this will be the effect on another state. Now you.

[Ted Cruz]

And there aren't a whole lot of Senate seats that are being contested in states where there's a big working class population. It's not like. So we picked up Indiana, for example, last time around. Indiana is a great example. Well, we don't have an Indiana seat on the ballot this time. And so the states that are up are states where it's particularly challenging.

[Michael Knowles]

It becomes tricky. And now you've run two Senate races. First time challenger kind of come out of nowhere. Obviously you'd had a long career, but in terms of national political office, all of a sudden you're the new guy in town. Six years later, you run a race where the mainstream media, the national political media, they were gunning for you. They got behind this other candidate, Beto O'Rourke. It actually took me a moment to remember his name, but he was all anyone was talking about for quite some time. Those two races, how were they different? What lessons do you think you could take from those races for the senators who are maybe up in tough fights this year.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, very different races, very different strategies. Let's start with 2012. 2012. I had no name ID. No one knew I was. And I'd never been elected to anything. I mean, it's a little bizarre, but the first office I was ever elected to was the United States.

[Michael Knowles]

That's right. That's pretty good. That's not too bad.

[Ted Cruz]

I've joked the last thing I was elected to before that was student council, and that is literally true. So when I ran in 2012, actually, so the very first poll we did, I had 2% name ID. Those are real numbers. And the margin of error on that poll was 3%.

[Michael Knowles]

So you may. It could have been negative one.

[Ted Cruz]

So I appreciate that sunny optimism. And you and Heidi are on the same page. I actually came home. I was amazed to be at 2%. I was really psyched. I'm like, look, I'm not at zero. And Heidi's response was the same as yours. Well, couldn't you be at negative one?

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, we're not positive here.

[Ted Cruz]

All right, thanks, my love. But that's where we started. And that was a race. It was a grassroots race. We had a strategy of systematically earning the support of conservative leaders, raising money and being using guerrilla tactics to drive messaging. So my opponent in the senate race was the lieutenant governor of Texas, a guy named David Dewhurst.

[Michael Knowles]

He had a lot of money, as I recall.

[Ted Cruz]

He's personally worth over $200 million. So he's massively wealthy. He'd been elected statewide repeatedly. In Texas, the lieutenant governor is the most powerful state official because the lieutenant governor runs the state senate and has almost total power, can assign any bill to any committee, can assign any senator to any committee, can basically decide what bills die and what bills live.

[Michael Knowles]

Right.

[Ted Cruz]

That meant that every lobbyist in the state was against us. Every special interest in the state was against us. Every big company in the state was against us. We didn't even really try with them. I mean, to be honest, if you had business in front of the state legislature, you had to be with him. And he also had universal name id. He'd run statewide and won over and over and over again. He'd poured millions of his own dollars into the races in the past. And in the senate race, he ended up putting about $35 million of his own money into the race. So we had to find other ways to succeed. We started, for example, going to all sorts of candidate forums all over the state, and you'd have a local tea Party. You'd have Republican women, you'd have a county party that they'd do a candidate forum. And there were, I think nine candidates who ran in that race. Dewhurst was the 800 pound gorilla and then the rest of us. So he wouldn't show up at the debates. So I'd go to them against candidates who were not running serious campaigns, not raising money. But we'd go and have, I think we did something like 40 or 44 debates. It was something like that. I mean, it was some crazy number. Dewhurst wouldn't show up at any.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

So we began doing things. We launched a website, duckandewhurst.com. i got a campaign staffer to dress as a duck and show up at Dewhurst's event. And he's a full size duck. And he'd show up. And I actually told him, I said, josh, if you can get him to take a swing at you, I'll give you 20 bucks. Just once. Just want the headline, Lieutenant Governor punches.

[Michael Knowles]

A duck punches a man dressed as duck.

[Ted Cruz]

But what would happen is he'd go do an event designed to get some great press. And the opening line of the news story would be, today, a man dressed as a duck went to the Lieutenant Governor's event. And we'd steal the story from him.

[Michael Knowles]

Right.

[Ted Cruz]

We had one candidate form where a grassroots activist did this. Actually made a milk carton with his picture on the side. Have you seen this?

[Michael Knowles]

Missing.

[Ted Cruz]

We put out a humorous cartoon that's very campy and it had a broadcaster that sounded like an old timey horror movie and said, bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra, a strange coyote like creature that some claim to have seen in South Texas. There's mysteries and then there's our Lieutenant Governor. And we have an image of the Lieutenant Governor. Somehow he can't seem to be found anywhere. We have him dancing around and we list all the places he skipped.

[Michael Knowles]

Right.

[Ted Cruz]

It was campy, it was corny. I think it cost us like $2,000 to make this cartoon. And we got all this free media. People shared it on social media. They laughed. And so when you're running a guerrilla campaign, you gotta find ways to take asymmetric advantage to use. And our greatest strength is that Dewhurst totally took it for granted. He thought there was no way on earth. This punk kid, which is how he viewed me, this young, never been elected to anything. No, no. And my attitude was like, David, you're exactly right. Please, please sit on your couch.

[Michael Knowles]

Yes, good, relax.

[Ted Cruz]

Nothing to worry here. And we systematically got the support of conservative leaders across the state. We got conservative leaders nationally. We raised a ton of money. And that was shoe leather. And it's interesting. Self funding candidates often lose. And part of the reason is if you write a check, writing a check is relatively easy. If you write a check for a million dollars, I would rather have a million dollars raised from real voters. Yep.

[Michael Knowles]

Yes.

[Ted Cruz]

Than 5 million or 10 million just from your own bottomless bank account.

[Michael Knowles]

You know, this is something I've noticed in successful campaigns, whether they're challenger campaigns or whether they are incumbent campaigns. I remember this was in 2011, I think Mitch Daniels, then governor of Indiana, there was talk he might run for president. Mitch Daniels was facing this tough legislative fight there. And the Democrats in the House, the House of Indiana, they just left town. They skipped town because they didn't want to vote on something. And as I recall, Mitch rewrote. He made a parody of a 1940s song, joking about how the guys had skipped town, put it on the radio in a campaign. It was fun. It was campy, just like you're describing. The first campaign I ever worked on, this was in 2010. It was for my friend Nan Hayworth. She was running a challenger race against this guy who, his name is John Hall. He was a rock star in the 70s. He was in the band Orleans. They did the song still the one, those kind of silly songs you see on commercials. And so we decided this is again a challenger campaign, very low name id. We decided to start a side group called the Young Voters for an Orleans reunion tour to get the guy out of Congress, get him back on the road again so he wasn't passing bad laws. Same thing they said. This is so stupid. They're ignoring it. Well, guess what? Those kind of campy grassroots tactics that got a lot of people involved. It was fun, it was offbeat. They really helped. They raised a little bit of money, got some good press. And I've noticed this even with reelection campaigns. So it's not as though you were only doing this sort of thing in your first race. The second time around, the presidential race and the second Senate race, you were still doing the same kinds of tactics. You didn't get complacent about it.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, there are a couple of things really important that you said that are good lessons for any campaign. One is, have fun. Yeah. You know, too many candidates take it too damn seriously. And particularly with negatives, they're like, so ominous. And there's a voice we all know of, Political Attack act. And I don't know it's this dude that apparently has a voice, like, so deep that comes on. Did you know that Michael Knowles eats kittens for breakfast?

[Michael Knowles]

I don't tell them.

[Ted Cruz]

Like, I mean, it's. And the voters are smart enough to go, like, they just don't believe it.

[Michael Knowles]

You just hear it, you just tune it out.

[Ted Cruz]

It just much more effective, especially with negatives, is having a light touch, having a tweak. Going back to that first Senate race, the Houston Symphony invited Dewhurst on, I think the 4th of July to be a guest conductor. And I have to admit, I sent an email to my team. I'm kind of a little annoyed. I'm like, okay, why is the symphony favoring him? I don't.

[Michael Knowles]

He's outrageous.

[Ted Cruz]

And the guy running my campaign, guy named Jason Johnson, is a great, great guy. Dear friend. He sees that and he sends an email. Must get video. And so Jason went to the concert. It was an outdoor symphony concert. And you have Dewhurst in white tie, tuxedo conducting with a symphony behind us, and Jason sitting there with his phone recording it. And we put out this ad. I don't even remember. It was something about flip flopping or something, but the whole image is him in white tie conducting. And it was priceless. But it wasn't so over the top as to be unbelievable. That's one piece. A second piece that you said, also that's really important is getting others to invest in the campaign. One of the better political books I read was Chris Matthews wrote a book called Hardball. And he talked about lessons, and he talked about a lesson he learned from Jimmy Carter, which is he said, in politics, if you want to have a chit, most people think, okay, if, if. If I want Michael to be on. On board, I'll do you a favor. Yeah. And if I do you a favor.

[Michael Knowles]

Well, then I owe you.

[Ted Cruz]

You owe me. And. And what Jimmy Carter apparently told Chris Matthews, he said, look, that actually doesn't work very well. Said human nature is weird. If. If Michael owes me half the time, you grow to resent it and get ticked off that you owe me. He said, if you really want to get Michael on your team, you know what you do? You get him to do you a favor.

[Michael Knowles]

This is a profound insight, and it.

[Ted Cruz]

Doesn'T matter what it is, anything. Because if you do something for me, you're invested in me.

[Michael Knowles]

Yep.

[Ted Cruz]

And it becomes. Then it becomes what you're doing. And ironically, you want to do more favors once you're. I think the example, if I remember right, that Carter used was Having someone pick him up at the airport, having a volunteer drive to the airport and pick him up, that just, hey, you know, I went and got that guy.

[Michael Knowles]

Yep.

[Ted Cruz]

That person's more likely to do more.

[Michael Knowles]

I'm involved. You know, this is. It's the same thing with campaign swag. Having worked on a number of campaigns, people think that campaigns make a lot of money on the swag. They don't make a lot of money on the swag. You know, it's a little pricey or something, but trust me, you're not making your campaign money by selling T shirts and buttons. But part of the reason you sell the T shirts and buttons is so that people feel a connection to the campaign. I buy a lot of campaign swag for campaigns that I support. Politicians I support, and it bonds me to them in that I say, okay, I've got the big foam finger. You know, I've got the T shirt or whatever. I'm on the team now. It's a way of creating that relationship with the constituents that you hope to represent.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, you're absolutely right. And if you get someone to do a little, they're much more likely to do a lot. You know, going back to that 2012 campaign, I remember the Texas state convention. So we made it to a runoff, which was our whole challenge was hold Dewhurst to 49.9%. And if we got to a runoff, I believe we'd win. That's what ended up happening. Yeah. The Texas state Republican convention happened between the primary and the runoff. So it's the biggest gathering of grassroots Republicans, actually, in the whole country, and it was all there. And so in terms of swag, now, we didn't have any money.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

So the Doerst campaign had these fancy buttons. They're like two, three bucks a piece to print. You know, they're nice buttons that you pin. We didn't have the money to pay for a bunch of two $3 buttons.

[Michael Knowles]

Right.

[Ted Cruz]

So what we did is we printed really cheap stickers that were the exact same size, and then we told people, go get a Dewhurst button and put our sticker on top of it. And, like, everyone had the Dewhurst button, took all their money to do it, and then put our stickers on top of it. And it was one of the great.

[Michael Knowles]

That is a fiscal conservative right there. That is a fiscally conservative campaign. So we've got to get into the mailbag. But just for your colleagues and maybe other people who are running in 2020, one thing I'm getting from you here is we are in probably the most negative news cycle of my lifetime. I mean, this is a really tough news cycle, and I think there are a lot of campaigns who just really want to play into that negativity and really just. But maybe what I'm hearing is that might not be the most successful way to inspire people.

[Ted Cruz]

It's fun. People can tell a joyful campaign. People can tell a campaign that are miserable, but empower the people. Best political advice I ever got in my life was from Heidi. It was years ago. It was right when I started to run. I was getting ready to give a speech, and Heidi told me, said, remember, it's not about you.

[Michael Knowles]

It's not about you.

[Ted Cruz]

It's about them.

[Michael Knowles]

Yep.

[Ted Cruz]

It's about their families, their kids, their future. And I still to this day, try to remind myself of that in front of every speech. That means. All right, so quick anecdote I'll tell. I'm back from the 2012 campaign. So we're down in South Texas, and we're doing an event in a church. It's a Saturday night. We're in the fellowship Hall. About 300 people gathered there, and the county Republican chairman comes in. He says, you know, most Republican candidates, when they come down to the Valley in Texas, they do a fundraiser. And he said, they go to the local country club. They charge 1,000 bucks a plate. And he said, this is not a fundraiser. He said, ted is here because he wants to listen to you. He wants to hear what you have to say and be part of a conversation. So I got up and I said, listen, thank you, everyone, for being here. Thank you. It's a Saturday night. You could be home with your kids. Thank you for coming out to this instead. And I said, thank you, Javier, to the local Republican chairman for being here as well. So there's one thing Javier said that was wrong. He said, this is not a fundraiser. Everything we do is a fundraiser. I said, listen, if you can max out, if you can write a $5,400 check, you and your spouse, God love you, we need it desperately. But you know what? Everyone here can give something.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

If. If you're in college, if you're in high school, you can get 25 bucks. Yep. 25 bucks is two pizzas. You're telling me you can't afford.

[Michael Knowles]

You can do it.

[Ted Cruz]

You can. And here's the thing. Here's why. If you give $10, $25, $50, whatever. If you give, you're invested.

[Michael Knowles]

You're right.

[Ted Cruz]

If you give 25 bucks, you're gonna Vote.

[Michael Knowles]

That's right.

[Ted Cruz]

But not only that, you're gonna talk to your friends, you're gonna talk to someone else, because suddenly your skin is in the game. And so we treated every event, grassroots events, as I told them there, I said, you know what? I can't win this race. Flat out, it is impossible for me to win this race. We can win this race, but I certainly can.

[Michael Knowles]

If it's just me, it ain't gonna happen.

[Ted Cruz]

And most campaigns, look, campaign consultants, they don't get paid for grassroots. They don't know how to do it. And the concept of empowering, creating ownership. You know, you mentioned the presidential. In 2016, we had 326,000 volunteers in that presidential campaign. We raised over $90 million. That is the most money any Republican has ever raised in the history of presidential primaries. More than George W. Bush or John McCain or Mitt Romney. And that came from 1.8 million contributions.

[Michael Knowles]

Grassroots. Right. So mentioning the political consultants here, just quickly before Mailbag, I have to ask you. You gave the best political advice you ever got. What's the worst political advice you ever got?

[Ted Cruz]

I don't know.

[Michael Knowles]

I think I have an answer to this question, but I'd be curious.

[Ted Cruz]

Go ahead. What's your.

[Michael Knowles]

So the worst political advice I ever got on any campaigns, and I've heard it on a lot of campaigns, is listen to what the Washington consultants tell you to do.

[Ted Cruz]

That's the kiss of death.

[Michael Knowles]

It's the kiss of, you start out with the great local campaign and it's working. And the minute it starts working really, really well, all of a sudden, some guy from Washington decides to come on in, tell you how to redo everything. Nine times out of 10, they will lose the campaign you were winning.

[Ted Cruz]

So let me give an example. I don't know about worst advice, but I had conflicting advice. It was one of the hardest moments. Okay, so 2012, campaign against Dewhurst. We run a grassroots campaign for months, start building support. Dewhurst campaign does what any dominant frontrunner does, which is ignore us, doesn't mention my name. We don't exist. And our numbers were steadily going up. Were steadily going up. Remember, we just had to get to a runoff. So we just had to keep him below 50. And he was well below 50. So their consultants, we know, were telling them, all right, ignore him. Ignore him. Ignore him. Okay, this is not working. We're not breaking 50 by ignoring him. All right, let's unload. And so they launch over a million bucks a week of negative attacks. I mean, just carpet bombing. And by the way their attack was that I was a red Chinese Communist.

[Michael Knowles]

Well, I always knew that about you. I thought that was a given.

[Ted Cruz]

I mean, down to. And it was based on. When I was a lawyer in private practice, there was a civil lawsuit between two tire companies, both of which were manufacturing tires in China, but one of which was owned by a Chinese company. Because my firm had been on that side of the litigation. They argued that cruise. I mean, they put out mailers with me next to the Chinese flag. They handed out money, Chinese money with my face on it, discolored to make it look Chinese. I mean, it was.

[Michael Knowles]

Campaigns are so stupid.

[Ted Cruz]

And so. All right. Million bucks a week of just saturation ads. And I'm watching them. And at the time, Dick Morris, the campaign consultant, who's a friend, he was someone who was giving me advice, not charging me, wasn't on the campaign payroll. We didn't have any money. But I asked Dick, what do you think of this ad? And he watched it. He said, it's fatal if you don't respond.

[Michael Knowles]

Really?

[Ted Cruz]

You're dead.

[Michael Knowles]

Cause it's so ridiculous.

[Ted Cruz]

He said, this is crushing. You must get a response. And I mentioned Jason, who was running my campaign. I talked to Jason, and Jason begged me, do not respond, please. And we had, at the time, a couple million dollars in the bank. So we could have gone up on air, but that was all we had.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And it was like, look, if you go up and respond, then the whole campaign is gonna turn on whether or not you are a red Chinese Communist. Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

Yep.

[Ted Cruz]

And instead, what Jason convinced me to do, he said, I'll tell you what. Let's do a tracking poll. Let's monitor what happens. And if our numbers are just cratering, if we're getting crushed, then let's respond. Yeah. Yeah. But let's see what happens first. And so I agreed to do that. So we went through several weeks of. It was a million bucks a week, and then it became 2 million bucks a week of attack. And we had zero response. And it's like a boxer in the ring putting his hands up, just saying, punch my ribs. You're literally just standing there getting hammered. And we had no money to respond. We put out on grassroots, we put on social media, these response. This attack is crap. And here are the facts. But we put no money behind it. And the tracking poll showed our numbers were going down. They were going down. My unfavorables were going up about a point a day. Okay. So we could see every day my unfaves would go up. A point up a point up a point. But what we also saw is Dewhurst unfazed, were going up about two points a day. And so because the ads were so nasty, yes, they were hurting me, but they were hurting, they were hurting him even more. Yep. And so we ended up, we never did respond to that ad with, with paid advertising. Instead, when we went up on air, it was our positive message, my record, my vision. Do you want a proven conservative fighter or do you want a moderate establishment dealmaker? And that choice is what won us the race. But those couple of weeks, it's tough to be in the moment in just getting pounded. I still remember Jason said after that, he said, remember this first race I'd done? But Jason said, well, we know you don't have a glass jaw.

[Michael Knowles]

That's right. And that is good advice. Very quickly, there's one mailbag question that keeps coming up. It has been coming up since we started the show and I've just got to ask it. This is from Ryan. Boxers or briefs?

[Ted Cruz]

Those are the only two choices.

[Michael Knowles]

On that note, moving right along, we will have to get to more of the mailbag questions tomorrow. I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

[C]

This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz is being brought to you by Jobs, Freedom and Security Pack, a political action committee dedicated to supporting conservative causes, organizations and candidates across the country. In 2022, Jobs, Freedom and Security PAC plans to donate to conservative candidates running for Congress and help the Republican Party across the nation.