AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – In tea party friendly Texas, no political star has burned brighter in recent years than Ted Cruz.
He rode a grassroots groundswell to an upset Senate victory in 2012, further solidified his conservative credentials by helping lead a government shutdown and has built his presidential campaign around wooing the Republican Party’s far right wing.
But Cruz may soon be finding himself defending his home turf.
The first-term senator addressed a hometown crowd in Houston on Tuesday and will hold three campaign events statewide Thursday – altogether his first public Texas visits since a pre-July 4 tour for his new book. He’s coming back just as Donald Trump has shot to the top of statewide polls, mirroring a national rise.
Other rivals, Jeb Bush and Scott Walker among them, have come to Texas more frequently or at least more recently. They are mounting a challenge to Cruz that had been expected to come from home-state rival Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who instead is barely making an impact in the state.