2016 Iowa caucus winner Ted Cruz mum on 2024 presidential run

CENTRAL CITY — A lot has changed in the five years since he won the 2016 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, especially in the short time Democrats have been in control of the White House and Congress, according to Sen. Ted Cruz.

“Seven months into this new administration everywhere we look it's a disaster,” the second-term Republican said about President Joe Biden’s administration. “The past few weeks have been incredibly painful for every American as we watch the catastrophe unfold in Afghanistan, as we see people clinging to the wheels of airplanes, as we see Joe Biden afraid to stand up to terrorists.”

However, the “road to revival runs through Iowa,” Cruz, 50, said as he stopped on that road Aug. 28 to raise funds for Iowa 1st District Rep. Ashley Hinson. He deflected questions about whether he will run again in 2024, but praised Iowa’s GOP congressional delegation as well as the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses and delivered a 20-minute stump speech that had at least half the 700 fellow conservatives in attendance on their feet for its entirety.

Among the changes since 2016 is what is accepted as truth, Cruz said as he started down a list of statements that five years ago “would have been utterly uncontroversial.”

“America is great,” he started, drawing cheers and applause after each statement. “The Taliban are terrorists. Chinese communists are evil. America's Founding Fathers were extraordinary patriots. Christopher Columbus discovering America was a good thing. Washington was an American hero. Thomas Jefferson was an American hero. Police officers protect us and keep us safe. Israel is our friend. There is a difference between boys and girls. The Wuhan virus came from Wuhan.”

Now, “uttering any one of those could get you canceled, get you fired, get you erased from social media,” he said.

Whether or not Cruz is thinking about running for president again, Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Ross Wilburn reminded Iowans the Texas senator “actively works against Iowa’s proud biofuels industry. He is a friend of Big Oil and as Sen. Chuck Grassley said so himself six months ago, Cruz continues to attack a critical part of Iowa’s agriculture sector.”

Hinson, Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds “are betraying Iowa farmers by inviting him to headline a fundraising event,” Wilburn added.

Despite the picture he painted, Cruz, sought to encourage his audience by reminding them of the “natural pendulum to American politics.”

“Inevitably when one party gets in power and they go too far one direction, the American people say, ‘Hold on a second,’ and they pull us back in the other direction,” Cruz said. “As you see the left galloping left and left and left, there are a whole lot of Americans saying, ‘What on earth are you guys talking about?’”

The good news is that in 2022 Republicans can retire House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Cruz said, “and then we're going to tell Joe Biden it’s already 2024 and he’ll go home to Delaware.”

“The road to 2022 comes through Iowa,” Cruz concluded. “The road to bringing America back to greatness comes through the great state of Iowa.”

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