Immigration, the evangelical vote, and history of last minute bumps are factors for GOP candidates in a presidential field that now favors mavericks
Source: Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio? Who gets Iowa bump’? – CNN.com
Iowa is upon us. After all the ads, the debates and the insults, a campaign that feels like it started in 1776 is finally going to count some votes. For the Republicans, the choice seems to be between two rebels: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. The polls favor the former, history looks more favorably on the latter, though Cruz is now thought to be fighting for his survival.
Mobilizing the grassroots seems to matter more than reaching out to moderates. This is because both parties have been shaken up by the presence of mavericks who have forced political elites to get back in touch with their bases. Bernie Sanders has driven Hillary Clinton to the left, where she looks about as comfortable as Rick Santorum in a gay bar.
Trump has driven the Republicans to the right — although Cruz certainly needed no encouragement. Indeed the two men enjoyed a bromance until recently, forged by a similar attitude toward the party machine. Just as Trump boasts that he cannot be bought, Cruz has long operated in a caucus of one.
He hasn’t a single endorsement from a senator, which is astonishing given that he is a senator. In the days when presidential candidates would be picked by a shadowy elite, that was a handicap. Nowadays it’s a virtue.
The Republican campaign has hinged on the issue of immigration, which itself is synonymous with the issue of trust. It goes to the heart of the accusation that the GOP has betrayed its base: why isn’t the border secured after two decades of promised action?
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