Cruz building ‘grass roots army’ to fuel 2016 presidential bid

URBANDALE - Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Saturday the 'volcanic frustration with Washington” is helping him build a 'grass roots army” in Iowa and around the nation that he is convinced with lead him to victory in his quest for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

'The grass roots that we are seeing in Iowa is incredible. It is electric. We have passion on the ground,” said Cruz, who was in Iowa to open a campaign headquarters that will be the starting point for 'an exceptionally frugal” national campaign that is building strength 'for the long haul” in New Hampshire, South Carolina and beyond at a time when other GOP rivals have faltered.

'We are playing the long game,” said the first-term U.S. senator from Houston who hopes to avoid the financial pitfalls that knocked Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Scott Walker of Wisconsin out of the 2016 race by waiting to expend funds until the Feb. 1 caucuses draw closer.

Cruz said his Iowa campaign has been focused on systematically building a foundation to avoid the 'flavor of the month” effect, where candidates rise to the top of the polls only to lose momentum and give way to a different front-runner.

'I'm a big believer in the biblical principle that you build your foundation on stone and not on sand,” said Cruz, who sees 'the old Reagan coalition” coalescing around his candidacy that includes conservatives, evangelicals, libertarians, young people, Hispanics, African Americans, women and Reagan Democrats.

Cruz said he also has been gaining support as a strong voice against Republican leadership in Congress that has been too quick to surrender conservative principles to President Obama and Democrats, triggering a wave of voter frustration that led John Boehner to announce he will stop down as House speaker and leave office later this year.

'Do you want to know why John Boehner resigned? It ain't complicated. People are frustrated out of their minds with leadership that begins with surrendering on day one,” Cruz said.

'The reason people are so frustrated out of their minds with Washington is that as conservatives we keep winning elections and the people who we elect don't do what they said they would do,” he added. 'I hope this very much serves as a wake-up call to House leadership that the promises we make on Election Day we need to follow through on once we're in office.”

Cruz said he believes that frustration is spilling over into the 2016 GOP presidential race, where he says he has emerged as the consistent conservative while the rest of the field is made up of campaign conservatives 'who can talk a good game on the campaign trail but haven't walked the walk.” He challenged the other GOP presidential candidates to come to Washington and fight for the GOP effort to send President Obama a federal budget that does not include money to fund Planned Parenthood clinics or to implement the Iran nuclear deal.