Rep. Steve King threw his political muscle Monday behind Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential bid, giving the Texas Republican a powerful surrogate in Iowa, which holds the caucus that will kick off the nomination race in February.
Mr. King described Mr. Cruz as the “full package” and a true conservative, with strong appeal among Christian conservatives, libertarians and disaffected Democrats.
“I believe Ted Cruz is the candidate who is the answer to my prayers, the candidate that God will use to restore the soul of America,” Mr. King said at a press conference at a hotel in Des Moines.
Mr. King, who represents the Republican-heavy 4th Congressional District in northwest Iowa, is one of the most coveted surrogates in the state. He endorsed former Sen. Fred Thompson in 2008, but he took a pass on backing any of the candidates in the 2012 GOP nomination race.
In a statement, Mr. Cruz said he was “beyond honored to receive Steve’s endorsement” and called Mr. King “one of the few truly principled men and women in Washington.”
The announcement comes as Mr. Cruz appears to be picking up momentum in the GOP presidential race, now running fourth in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, as well as in surveys out of Iowa.
Among the issues for which the Cruz campaign statement praised Mr. King as “an influential and outspoken conservative” were “the issues of immigration and fiscal responsibility.” At his news conference in Iowa, Mr. King also touted Mr. Cruz on immigration.
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign immediately pounced, calling Mr. Cruz’s endorsement by one of the party’s most adamant opponents of illegal immigration a sign of “how extreme and anti-immigrant today’s Republican Party has become.”
The Clinton camp highlighted Mr. King’s calls for a crackdown on illegal immigration and rhetoric on “Dreamers” — who were brought into the U.S. illegally as children by their parents — as symbolic.
“No one should be proud to stand with a Congressman who believes that legalizing undocumented immigrants will ’destroy our Republic’ and calls Dreamers ’deportable,” said Lorella Praeli, director of Latino outreach for the Clinton campaign. “Unfortunately, that is the America Republicans are fighting for: a country that disgraces our immigrants and tears apart law-abiding families across the nation.”
Mr. Cruz rolled out a plan Friday for fixing the nation’s immigration system that called for a tougher approach on both legal and illegal immigration.
He called for the completing of the 700 miles of double-tier fencing that Congress passed as part of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 — a proposal that Mrs. Clinton, then a senator, supported at the time. He also called for a 180-day moratorium for high-skilled workers under the H-1B program and putting other increases in legal immigration on ice until the workforce-participation rate improves.
Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, has supported President Obama’s executive amnesties for illegal immigrants and has vowed to do more to legalize more of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the country.
On Monday the Clinton camp criticized Mr. Cruz for vowing to end the executive amnesties as well as birthright citizenship.
“Very simply: Cruz’s vision is illogical, impractical and inhumane,” Ms. Praeli said. “Once again it’s time to tell them: Ya basta. It’s time to move America forward.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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