King’s backing boosts Cruz, but will others follow?

U.S. Rep. Steve King's endorsement of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the GOP presidential sweepstakes was no bombshell, but that didn't stop it from reverberating around the Iowa political echo chamber Monday.

Not only had King and Cruz recently shot pheasants at the western Iowa congressman's fundraiser, but his son, Jeff, has been working for a Cruz political-action committee.

Still, King's endorsement is seen as a conservative seal of approval.

'It certainly helps Cruz given King's solid conservative credentials,” said Steffen Schmidt, Iowa State University political science professor. But he and others expect it to have little impact beyond religious and social conservatives who often make up the bulk of Republican caucusgoers.

Typically, at this stage of the campaign, according to Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at ISU, endorsements from governors are seen as most valuable, followed by those from U.S. senators and then members of the House.

'King's endorsement would have more weight if other Iowa GOP party elites began to coalesce around his support,” she said. Given that Gov. Terry Branstad and Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst don't plan to endorse, King's blessing may be the best available to GOP presidential hopefuls.

Even if its impact is limited to those voters who already trust King's judgment, Bystrom said, given the makeup of Iowa GOP caucusgoers, that's not altogether insignificant.

For Chris Larimer, a University of Northern Iowa political science professor, King's endorsement may be a sign of where he thinks the race is going 76 days before Iowa's first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses. He suspects King would endorse either Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal - who dropped out of the race Tuesday - former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum or Cruz, 'and Cruz is the most viable at this point in the campaign, in terms of polling and momentum.”

It probably won't sway those Republicans who have no qualms about Cruz's policy positions but 'realize that he is so hated by the Democrats that it can hurt Republicans,” according to Tim Hagle, political science professor at the University of Iowa.

The impact would be amplified if social and religious conservatives take King's endorsement as a signal to coalesce around Cruz, Hagle said. though 'social conservatives seem to be divided.”

If King's endorsement is followed by similar decisions by conservative leaders, such as Bob Vander Plaats, president of The Family Leader, it will carry more weight, Hagle said. People backing other candidates 'might eventually move to Cruz if he's the one that shows momentum come mid-January” when voters are looking to get behind a winner who will represent their interests, Hagle said.

That could help the Republican Party, too, if it prompts other candidates to drop out and decreases the likelihood of a brokered convention, which Schmidt predicted would be a 'horrible circus.”

Larimer said front-runner Ben Carson probably needed King's endorsement more than anyone because 'it would have provided some stability and reassurance following a week of questions about his depth of policy knowledge.”