Sen. Ted Cruz held a rally in Columbia hosted by the National Veterans for Cruz Coalition Rollout on Tuesday at the Columbia Armory, where he spoke mainly about foreign threats, the US military and taxation.
Several speakers took the stage before Cruz, including former senator of New Hampshire Bob Smith, evangelist Tim Lee, Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer and former governor of Texas Rick Perry.
“I am from Texas, and we elected Ted Cruz primarily for the purpose that he gave us a promise that he was gonna do certain things, and when he went to Washington D.C., guess what? He kept his word,” Smith said.
Perry also expressed his support for Cruz, saying, “There is one individual that I know operates everyday on two checklists: the Bible and the United States Constitution; and that is Senator Ted Cruz."
Cruz entered in blue jeans and directed his speech to his audience made up of a large number of veterans by highlighting the need to improve the VA by allowing all veterans the opportunity to choose the doctors they want. He discussed foreign threats, saying they have gotten stronger under the Obama administration with Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, and his concern about Iran’s nuclear weapons being funded by American taxes.
“We have seen for seven years weakness and appeasement does not work. In January 2017, our friends and allies and our enemies; both will know America is back,” Cruz said.
Supporters were very vocal about their accordance with his ideas by standing at different points throughout the speech when Cruz became increasingly passionate. Fourth-year chemical engineering student Carson Connor, who had seen Cruz speak before, said, “This one was different. A lot more fire in him ... he is the only one up there who is really true to the Constitution and capitalism and he doesn’t apologize for it at all. He’s the only politician that I’ve seen that actually fights to keep the promises he gives."
Cruz compared himself to Ronald Reagan who he says came in and reformed taxes, brought back economic growth by unleashing small business and rebuilt the military which in turn bankrupt the Soviet Union and won the Cold War.
“As president, I intend to do the exact same thing with radical Islamic terrorists. We are gonna lift the burdens of taxation regulations of small businesses, we are gonna pass a simple flat tax, and abolish the IRS. We’re gonna repeal every word of Obamacare ... we are gonna use that revenue to restore military strength,” Cruz said.
Cruz was also passionate at the rally about keeping women out of combat positions in the military saying, “We are not gonna be drafting our daughters … the time of the military being treated as a cauldron for social experiments is over. We are gonna restore the military ethos."
Throughout the rally Cruz reiterated his Christian values and their importance, which is a major reason many supporters gave when asked why they are voting for him. These values are what drew third-year management and marketing student Emily Kubilus to the Cruz campaign.
"What led me to vote and volunteer with him is, basically is he’s a conservative and he’s a Christian. And I think that being a Christian would be really beneficial to have a Christian leading the country ... I think that’s the only thing that could get America back where it used to be,” Kubilus said.