U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas made his first visit to Maine Friday.
He was in Orono, where he drew a big crowd to the University of Maine one day ahead of the GOP presidential caucuses.
There was country music on the loudspeaker and a patriotic assembly on stage meant to represent Cruz’s core supporters. Originally, the Cruz campaign had booked a 500-seat campus venue, but the lines grew long early and the rally was moved to the much larger Collins Center for the Arts — and crammed it to its capacity of 1,200.
Cruz seemed to tailor the message to his audience in the 2nd Congressional District — which runs more conservative than the 1st District — by focusing on religion, guns and conservative values.
“The Constitution and Bill of Rights should not be up for compromise, and I will tell the men and women of Maine I will not compromise away your religious liberty,” he said. “I will not compromise away your 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”
Cruz said that as president, he would return America to the conservative values of its heritage.
He spoke about the need for a conservative justice to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, saying that the country was “just one liberal justice away” from having to remove all religious symbols from public places, such as veterans’ monuments. He demanded a stronger military.
Yet he spoke almost fondly of left-wing Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, saying that the two senators agree that Washington has left “the little guy” behind, but have two wildly different approaches to the problem. Following Thursday night’s blistering GOP debate, Cruz’s continues to hammer frontrunner Donald Trump who, he said, can’t be trusted to uphold conservative ideals.
“Donald Trump started galloping to the center before the primary is over,” he said. “Donald Trump repeatedly emphasized ‘flexibility.’ ‘Flexible’ is Washington code word that he’s gonna stick it to the people.”
Cruz’s anti-Washington rhetoric could resonate with more traditional Republicans. Jim Melcher, a political science professor with University of Maine at Farmington, says it’s no accident that Cruz chose the 2nd Congressional District to stage his rally.
“Maine has tended to have very close Republican races,” he said. “In the last two caucus years, things were very, very tight and so I think several candidates are looking to Maine thinking ‘This is another place where I might be able to do well.’“
About 100 delegates separate Cruz from Trump at the moment. Maine has just 23 to offer.
Not all in the crowd were on board with Cruz. Michael Pickett and Jesse Dumais, both of Millinocket, arrived together to hear what Cruz had to say, but neither was feeling very hopeful about Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, or anybody else on the ticket.
“We need somebody more conservative to actually run the country, right at this moment,” Pickett said, adding that he doesn’t think Cruz, Trump or Kasich fit the bill.
“You know after the debate last night, Kasich actually looked the more mature out of the three people that were bullying each other. Crazy,” Dumais said.
But Terry Gallagher of Holden doesn’t agree. She said she sees something special in Cruz.
“It surprises me that more people can’t see it,” she said. “When he speaks, he speaks from the heart. You feel you can trust him, that this might be the first politician that gets into office and does what he says he’s going to do.”
Cruz’s appearance in Maine didn’t go unnoticed by University of Maine students. Protesters assembled outside holding signs objecting to Cruz’s anti-abortion stance and what they see as his bigotry against immigrants and Muslims. Several times, students interrupted Cruz’s speech calling him a fascist and waving signs, and police intervened.
But the bigger-than-expected turnout and cheers from the crowd demonstrate that his message did strike a chord with this audience at least. The rest of Maine’s Republican electorate will get to weigh in too, as caucuses get underway this weekend.
