Subject: The Brief: Analyzing Ted Cruz's Hail Mary Veep Play
From: The Texas Tribune <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2016 11:08:42 +0000
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** The Brief: Analyzing Ted Cruz's Hail Mary Veep Play (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=ff64e8ebfb&e=df70708b10)
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by John Reynolds | April 28, 2016
http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=d9fe0565e4&e=df70708b10

** The Big Conversation
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Ted Cruz veered away from the standard presidential campaign playbook on Wednesday with his announcement of a vice presidential pick as his own prospects of snagging the nomination are fading after five crushing defeats to Donald Trump this week.

The move had many analysts calling the choice of former presidential contender Carly Fiorina a Hail Mary play, a desperation heave intended to somehow halt Trump's path to the nomination.

The Tribune's Abby Livingston and Patrick Svitek wrote (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=3fd8e61c9e&e=df70708b10) :

The Fiorina pick does two immediate things for Cruz. Most immediately, it helps change the subject from the blowout Trump dealt him (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=a4a6f3a850&e=df70708b10)  Tuesday night in five East Coast states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. (Cruz took a similar tack after a disappointing finish in the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 23: The next day, his campaign announced (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=d397c631bc&e=df70708b10)  the endorsement of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=edf21d1c8a&e=df70708b10) .)

Additionally, Fiorina's appearances on the campaign trail will likely now pick up more attention and enthusiasm, helping renew the Cruz's campaign's flagging momentum.

The Tribune's Madlin Mekelburg, meanwhile, addresses in a separate story (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=c685213155&e=df70708b10) Fiorina's Texas roots, which were mentioned prominently in Wednesday's announcement.

She wrote (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=c183739a04&e=df70708b10) , "Fiorina left Texas when she was two, and highlighted her California roots during her own brief bid for the nomination. She now lives in Virginia, but Cruz focused on her state of birth during his announcement on Wednesday. 'Born in Texas,' Cruz said of Fiorina's biography. 'The very first thing I liked about her.'"

Mekelburg added (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=b67845d075&e=df70708b10) , "For Cruz and Fiorina, the significance of their shared Texas backgrounds is not a constitutional question, but one of political value. (UT government professor Bruce) Buchanan said rather than highlighting their ties to a particular state, Cruz and Fiorina would be wise to keep their focus on the big picture."

Other political observers had history on their minds when parsing Cruz's move, finding a parallel with Ronald Reagan's decision to make an early vice presidential pick while trailing Gerald Ford for the nomination in 1976.

The Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff wrote (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=f4d1dd8195&e=df70708b10) , "Craig Shirley, a Reagan biographer, said Reagan announced his vice presidential pick because CBS News was poised to run a story that would have showed conclusively that Ford would win at the convention. Reagan’s surprise announcement gave his campaign a burst of excitement — and CBS held the story. 'It worked brilliantly to kill the CBS story, which kept Reagan’s campaign alive until Kansas City,' Shirley said."

Reagan, of course, lost the nomination. And complicating the matter for Cruz is that Reagan was much closer to winning the nomination than Cruz is now.

“Is it a Hail Mary pass? Sure it is, of course it is,” Shirley told Woodruff (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=88245b932f&e=df70708b10) . “But, you know what, it’s the fourth quarter. And when you’re down by two or three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, you have to start throwing the ball long. Sometimes it works.”

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=bf37c35289&e=df70708b10) .

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•    And on the Senate side, that chamber's Economic & Small Business Development and Energy Resources committees hold a joint hearing in the Capitol extension to study the impacts of the declining price of oil on the economy and the Texas budget [E1.030 (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=2814a2afd3&e=df70708b10) ].

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** Quote to Note
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"Texans will smile. This is what we do. But the rest of the country looks at Texas with a mix of puzzlement and disdain when we do that kind of stuff."

— Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, to the Tribune on Ted Cruz playing up Carly Fiorina's Texas roots while announcing her as his vice presidential pick (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=ec8caab443&e=df70708b10) should he win the GOP presidential nomination

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Texas’ strong economic growth is a cause — and effect — of immigration (http://texastribune.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d0ce87edeeb6df90043897db&id=8cdded16b0&e=df70708b10) , by Ike Brannon — No other region of the country is growing as smartly as Texas these days, and that growth is both the draw and the outcome of the large presence of immigrants in the state.

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