Politics

Cruz’s Fiery Message Has Limited Appeal to Some in GOP

Published

9 years ago

March 24, 2015

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, his wife Heidi, and their two daughters Catherine, 4, left, and Caroline, 6, right, wave on stage after he announced his campaign for president, Monday, March 23, 2015 at Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Va. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Ted Cruz gives a rousing speech. The former college debate champion can energize a crowd of 10,000 evangelicals at a basketball arena as easily as he can captivate a few dozen inside a New Hampshire cafeteria. He’s proven in the Senate he’s got the stamina to go on longer than anyone else to make his point.

As a messenger, he’s got fire. It’s the message that’s the question for Cruz.

Kicking off his 2016 campaign for president, the first-term senator sought not to build a coalition of voters, but instead rally into action those who share his deeply conservative beliefs. It’s an approach that’s gotten him nowhere in the Senate and puts added pressure on his rhetorical gifts to win over those who don’t share his uncompromising ideology.

Cruz opened his official campaign Monday with a wee-hours tweet followed by his speech at Liberty University, a leading Christian college, where he declared: “The power of the American people, when we rise up and stand for liberty, knows no bounds.” He was the first major White House hopeful to enter the race, with many more to follow.

At Liberty, he demonstrated how he won college debating titles while a student at Princeton University and court cases at the Supreme Court as the state of Texas’ top lawyer.

Without a script or notes, he walked around a theater-in-the-round stage during a half-hour speech that gave no quarter on his conservativism. He’s adept, too, at engaging smaller crowds. During his recent visit to New Hampshire, he spent almost an hour working the room before his remarks. He promised a middle-schooler he would schedule an interview for the school paper, posed for lots of pictures and signed one woman’s bright pink cowboy boots that she said reminded her of his home state of Texas.

“Whatever it takes,” Cruz said with a smile.

Cruz has become an effective spokesman for the small-government, less-tax tea party movement, but not one who has advanced an agenda in Congress, where he is a divisive figure even within his own party. He says he would disband the IRS, scrap President Barack Obama’s health care law, seek to overturn abortion rights. All face steep climbs for the next president; Cruz makes such pledges as though it would be a cakewalk.

“From the dawn of this country, at every stage, America has enjoyed God’s providential blessing over and over again when we faced impossible odds, the American people rose to the challenge,” Cruz said. “Compared to that, repealing Obamacare and abolishing the IRS ain’t all that tough.”

In the Senate, Cruz has found few natural allies. His fellow Texan, Sen. John Cornyn, declined to endorse him on Monday. Sen. John McCain of Arizona once called Cruz one of the “wacko birds” of the Senate. And after Cruz spoke in the Senate floor for 21 hours and 19 minutes straight in September 2013, in a quixotic attempt to starve the health care law of money, many colleagues considered it a stunt.

The ensuing partial government shutdown hurt the GOP’s standing with the public.

As well, the fiery rhetoric can come across as too harsh for many moderate, deep-pocketed and establishment-minded Republicans. They still make up the GOP majority, for all the influence that conservative activists wield early in the primary contests and beyond.

Cruz shows little interest in calibrating his views for moderates at this early stage of his White House run. For all the talk about the Republican Party being a big-tent coalition with many divergent corners, Cruz seems to be focused on convincing those who don’t share his views that they are wrong. His outreach remains on the right, extending to Christian conservatives from his tea party roots.

He’s hoping those blocs may be enough for him to cobble together the primary votes making him the nominee.

___

Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/philip_elliott

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Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

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19 hours ago

April 26, 2024

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MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

Published

6 days ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Mayor London Breed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

***PRESS RELEASE***

MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

HUD’s Continuum of Care grant will support the City’s range of critical services and programs, including permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and improved access to housing for survivors of domestic violence

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program is designed to support local programs with the goal of ending homelessness for individuals, families, and Transitional Age Youth.

This funding supports the city’s ongoing efforts that have helped more than 15,000 people exit homelessness since 2018 through City programs including direct housing placements and relocation assistance. During that time San Francisco has also increased housing slots by 50%. San Francisco has the most permanent supportive housing of any county in the Bay Area, and the second most slots per capita than any city in the country.

“In San Francisco, we have worked aggressively to increase housing, shelter, and services for people experiencing homelessness, and we are building on these efforts every day,” said Mayor London Breed. “Every day our encampment outreach workers are going out to bring people indoors and our City workers are connecting people to housing and shelter. This support from the federal government is critical and will allow us to serve people in need and address encampments in our neighborhoods.”

The funding towards supporting the renewal projects in San Francisco include financial support for a mix of permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and transitional housing projects. In addition, the CoC award will support Coordinated Entry projects to centralize the City’s various efforts to address homelessness. This includes $2.1 million in funding for the Coordinated Entry system to improve access to housing for youth and survivors of domestic violence.

“This is a good day for San Francisco,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “HUD’s Continuum of Care funding provides vital resources to a diversity of programs and projects that have helped people to stabilize in our community. This funding is a testament to our work and the work of our nonprofit partners.”

The 2024 Continuum of Care Renewal Awards Include:

$42.2 million for 29 renewal PSH projects that serve chronically homeless, veterans, and youth
$318,000 for one new PSH project, which will provide 98 affordable homes for low-income seniors in the Richmond District
$445,00 for one Transitional Housing (TH) project serving youth
$6.4 million dedicated to four Rapid Rehousing (RRH) projects that serve families, youth, and survivors of domestic violence
$750,00 for two Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) projects
$2.1 million for three Coordinated Entry projects that serve families, youth, chronically homeless, and survivors of domestic violence

In addition, the 2023 CoC Planning Grant, now increased to $1,500,000 from $1,250,000, was also approved. Planning grants are submitted non-competitively and may be used to carry out the duties of operating a CoC, such as system evaluation and planning, monitoring, project and system performance improvement, providing trainings, partner collaborations, and conducting the PIT Count.

“We are very appreciative of HUD’s support in fulfilling our funding request for these critically important projects for San Francisco that help so many people trying to exit homelessness,” said Del Seymour, co-chair of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board. “This funding will make a real difference to people seeking services and support in their journey out of homelessness.”

In comparison to last year’s competition, this represents a $770,000 increase in funding, due to a new PSH project that was funded, an increase in some unit type Fair Market Rents (FMRs) and the larger CoC Planning Grant. In a year where more projects had to compete nationally against other communities, this represents a significant increase.

Nationally, HUD awarded nearly $3.16 billion for over 7,000 local homeless housing and service programs including new projects and renewals across the United States.