When Ted Cruz announced his presidential bid last week, the media pounced on the opportunity to attack his ultra-conservative policies, Canadian heritage, and political antics. They used the opportunity to revisit a number of stories, drawing into question his qualifications and stances on issues.
Attacks from liberal media outlets are hardly the beginning of Cruz’s worries, however. His White House aspirations have a much different beast challenging his presidential bid — a problem that lies not with his policies or citizenship and is far more fundamental than any of the political chatter that has clouded the media since his announcement. Simply put, Cruz is unelectable.
To discuss Cruz’s controversial political antics or his questionable eligibility for the presidency would be to first presuppose that he even has a chance of winning the Republican nomination, let alone the general election.
Take a step back and really consider the selection process that Cruz will have to go through to make it to the White House. First, he will have to win the support of major Republican donors and eventually the nomination from the Republican Party, the good graces of which he has never enjoyed.
Cruz has consistently defied party unity and disregarded Republican leadership, making a nomination from the Republican Party improbable. This was seen most notably in his famous filibuster, where Cruz’s antics led to the Republican leadership being blamed for the government shutdown, and reversed the little progress they had made in the defunding of Obamacare.
His own party members have attacked him for his actions and accused him of being counterproductive to the hard work of Republican leadership. Karl Rove commented on Cruz’s defiance of party unity, saying, “You cannot build a congressional majority, in either party, for any kind of action, unless you are treating your colleagues with some certain amount of respect.”
Whether or not Cruz’s defiance of party leadership is justified (it’s not) or his utter lack of respect for Republican unity does indeed make a good president (it doesn’t) is beside the point. The fact remains that he will never receive a nomination from the Republican Party, much less its respect.
This brings us to the second stage in Cruz’s fairy-tale presidential run: The general election. Even if Cruz miraculously won the Republican nomination (which he won’t), he would be absolutely massacred by media outlets during the general election.
Cruz would not only have a problem dodging media attacks, but he would find himself at a total disconnect with American voters. His ultra-conservative ideals alienate him from voters on both sides of the aisle.
In an article by FiveThirtyEight Politics, Cruz was matched up in four national live polls against Hillary Clinton and came in last place among all of the Republican primary candidates.
In addition, he received only five percent of the vote from Republican voters regarding primary candidate preference. At best, it seems doubtful that Cruz could overcome such low predictions, even at an early stage.
It is obvious that Cruz has no chance whatsoever of seriously competing in a general election against Hillary Clinton. Not only for this reason, but primarily for his inability to win the Republican nomination, will Cruz be absolutely unelectable in 2016.