Republican presidential hopeful Senator Ted Cruz was the hands-down favorite of the Americans for Prosperity annual summit this weekend, if the number and volume of ovations during the speeches of five presidential candidates who addressed the conservative anti-tax Tea Party activists was the measure.
At the other end of the spectrum was former Florida governor Jeb Bush, a newcomer to events financed by conservative industrialists Charles and David Koch. Bush was attending his first national conference of Americans for Prosperity and was greeted with respectful, but restrained applause by a group that rose essentially out of Republican dissatisfaction with federal spending under his brother, former US president George W. Bush.
Cruz, the Tea Party favorite since his 2012 election to the US Senate, sparked deafening cheers in the Columbus Convention Center auditorium even before he took the stage, entering to the 1980s power anthem Eye of the Tiger.
Photo: AP
During his speech on Saturday, he went on to promise to “repeal every word of Obamacare,” and “rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal.”
Each of Cruz’s lines was met with applause and cheers from the more than 3,000 activists.
Jeb Bush, who spoke a day earlier, worked hard, but earned far fewer cheers, and mostly polite applause, from the anti-tax, economic conservative audience from around the country.
David White of Marietta, Ohio, was unimpressed with Jeb Bush.
“He did not articulate any plan for what he intends to do as president,” White said. “He used his time to try and rearrange perception of his record in Florida.”
Jeb Bush did stress his experience during eight years as Florida governor, noting tax cuts, reduction in the state government workforce and an overhaul in the state’s education system.
Cruz, on the other hand, laid out an agenda that consisted entirely of undoing actions taken by US President Barack Obama.
The event is significant because it is an opportunity for presidential candidates to impress the conservative group, which spent more than US$30 million in advertising against Obama’s re-election in 2012 and has activists, donors and organizers in 36 states and an operating budget for 2016 of about US$125 million.
US Senator Marco Rubio, who can trace his 2010 Senate election to Tea Party support, received hearty cheers, but less robust than Cruz, while taking a more policy-focused approach than Cruz.
The two-day conference was also an opportunity for exposure for lesser-known candidates such as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former Texas governor Rick Perry.
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