Cruz Refuses to Endorse Cornyn in GOP primary (+video)

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON  — The sniping between establishment Republicans and tea partiers resumed Thursday as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz refused to endorse his state’s senior senator in next week’s Republican primary.

Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican leader, faces tea party-backed Rep. Steve Stockman in Tuesday’s election. Cruz declined to tell reporters how he plans to vote.

“I am not supporting any of the senators from my party or their opponents” in this year’s primaries, Cruz said, adding that he might change his mind later.

Cruz, a tea party favorite and potential 2016 presidential candidate, has infuriated fellow Republicans by forcing uncomfortable votes on issues such as the debt, and by raising money for conservative groups trying to defeat veteran Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Cruz’s comments are especially notable because he is a vice chairman of the GOP committee tasked with winning Senate elections. He criticized the committee’s track record and policy of virtually always backing incumbents.

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Ted Cruz To Tea Party Gathering: We’ll ‘Turn This Country Around

By Elizabeth Titus.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told tea party activists on Thursday that he is “filled with the promise that we’re going to turn this country around” after legislative fights over drones, guns and Obamacare last year.

The freshman Republican received a hero’s welcome at a Tea Party Patriots-hosted fifth anniversary event for the movement in Washington, where he discussed the three issues.

“If you listen to the media, if you listen to Democrats — although I repeat myself — they will say the fight to stop Obamacare did not succeed,” said Cruz, who pushed to defund the president’s signature health care law in a fight that led to a government shutdown last fall.

“Really?” Cruz said. “Well, I’m a big believer the proof is in the pudding. Last fall, millions of Americans rose up and said, ‘Stop the disaster that is Obamacare.’ … We elevated the national debate of the incredible harms Obamacare is visiting on millions of Americans.”

Republicans’ poll numbers suffered after the shutdown, but the health care law is still poised to be one of the central issues in this year’s midterm elections. Republicans must net six seats to take back control of the Senate.

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstRepublican Cruz puts Clinton odds of White House win at 40 percent

By Thomas Ferraro.

Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Tea Party favorite seen as a potential 2016 presidential contender, on Thursday put Democrat Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the White House at 40 percent.

“The media thinks she is unstoppable, but they also thought she was unstoppable in the 2008 Democratic primary,” which Barack Obama won en route to the White House, Cruz said of the former secretary of state and wife of two-term U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Cruz said Clinton would be vulnerable in a general election for a number of reasons, including what he called Obama’s failed economy and the traditional shift in voter preference.

“There is a natural pendulum in politics,” Cruz said, with the public often ready to turn to the other party after one party has held the White House for eight years.

Obama is in his second, four-year term.

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