On the eve of the Utah caucuses, Ted Cruz has received the endorsement of two prominent Mormons: Glenn Beck and Mitt Romney.
On Tuesday, March 22, Utah Republicans will choose 40 delegates in caucuses. Under Utah’s rules, a candidate who wins more than 50% of the vote captures all of the state’s GOP delegates. If nobody wins more than half, the delegates are apportioned based on the percentage of the vote the candidate wins.
Ted Cruz (l) & Glenn Beck (r)
Lee Davidson reports for The Salt Lake Tribune that on Saturday, March 19, 2016, at a Cruz campaign rally of about 5,000 people in Provo High School, Provo, Utah, Glenn Beck said about Cruz and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), “I don’t have any friends in Washington except these two” because of how they attack the status quo there.
Then Beck said something at once cryptic and alarming. He said that he, like many Mormons, believes in a prophecy that the Constitution will hang by a thread in the last days. Beck said he believes that now is that time, and that people like Lee and Cruz will save it.
Beck also said the Book of Mormon was created as a guide on how to protect freedom in our day, to which the people at the rally responded yelling, “I believe.”
Cruz also received an endorsement from another prominent Mormon — 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Romney — who had been campaigning for any GOP presidential candidate except Donald Trump — did not appear at Cruz’s rallies, but endorsed Cruz in a Facebook post on Friday. Romney wrote:
“The only path that remains to nominate a Republican rather than Mr. Trump is to have an open convention. At this stage, the only way we can reach an open convention is for Sen. Cruz to be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as possible. Today, there is a contest between Trumpism and Republicanism. Through the calculated statements of its leader, Trumpism has become associated with racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, vulgarity and, most recently, threats and violence. I am repulsed by each and every one of these.”
Trump responded by calling Romney “the man who ‘choked’ and let us all down,” so his endorsement of Cruz “is good for me.”
For his part, Cruz said that the biggest danger America faces is career politicians who no longer listen, and that he relishes battling them for the people: “The biggest divide we have today in politics is between career politicians in Washington — in both parties — and the American people. Our freedom is at stake. Our nation is dangling in the balance.” Cruz said he has been ridiculed and attacked by such politicians for fighting Obamacare and defending the Constitution, but that he and Sen. Mike Lee are “holding Washington accountable.” Cruz even hinted that he might consider Lee as a Supreme Court nominee if he is elected president.
Thus far, Trump has won 673 delegates, Cruz has won 410 delegates, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has won 143, while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio — who suspended his campaign this week — had won 169. A total of 1,237 delegates is needed to win the Republican Party’s nomination.
See also:
- It’s déjà vu all over again: Romney-Ryan filed intention to run for presidency with FEC
- Why are they so afraid of Donald Trump?
- GOP consultants call for assassinating Donald Trump
- Which 2016 presidential candidates are members of Council on Foreign Relations?
- Who is the real Ted Cruz?
- Ted Cruz’s undisclosed $1M loan from Goldman Sachs
- Is Ted Cruz an advocate of a North American Union?
- Republican Sen. Ted Cruz announces presidential campaign, but is he eligible?
~Eowyn
