Cruz’s speech following IA Caucuses rubs a focus group of New Hampshire voters the wrong way

February 2, 2022 By chris Opinion

One line from Ted Cruz’s victory speech following the Iowa caucuses Monday night appeared to really rub a focus group of New Hampshire voters the wrong way.

The Texas senator was accused by some of taking too long to thank the people of Iowa for his win, despite the most recent polling showing him trailing by a few points.

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At one point in his over 30 minute remarks, Cruz quoted Psalm 30:5, saying, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

“As a whole the group started to get neutral, it started to dip — the line started to dip there because they didn’t really like what he was saying,” the CNN’s Randi Kaye noted.

Kaye asked one of the focus group participants, who is an undecided voter, why she did not like what Cruz had to say. “I thought he was pandering to the crowd,” the woman replied. “He seemed to say the same thing over and over … just to get the crowd to believe that is what he really thought, and you really can’t tell if he was genuine or not, or if he was just saying it because that’s what the Iowans wanted to hear him say.”

The New Hampshire woman added, that he remained undecided who to vote for during next week’s primary in the Granite State, but had all but eliminated Cruz, after listening to the speech and was leaning towards Florida senator Marco Rubio.

Cruz actually used the scripture as a launching point to talk about morning coming to America, which was the theme of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign. The Texas senator came back to the line as he closed his speech, saying, “Iowa has made clear to America and the world, morning is coming.”

Rubio’s speech to supporters was about a third as long, but just as hopeful. The candidate beat expectations in the caucus results, surging six points ahead of recent polling to come in third at 23 percent, to Cruz’s 28 and Trump’s 24.

“When our work is done, here is what history will say of this generation,” he said expectantly to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters. “It will say that we lived in the early years of this new century, in an uncertain and difficult time, but we remember who we were. We rose up to the challenge of our time. We confronted our problems and solved them.”