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 Instead, the senator from Texas finds himself in a strange
position as he sees himself eclipsed both by Senator Marco Rubio,
also a Cuban-American, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a
fluent Spanish-speaker married to a Mexican-American, as early
favorites among Hispanic Republicans who could play an increasingly
influential role in the nomination process.
To Latinos, Cruz often feels more like an afterthought. And while
that’s largely attributed to his hard-right stance on immigration
reform, prominent Hispanic conservatives offered insight as to why
his problems with Latinos run deeper. Rubio, they said, has embraced
his ethnic identity in a way that Cruz, who speaks little Spanish,
has not or will not.
“At times, Senator Cruz finds it difficult to identify or engage
with his Latino heritage,” said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, a key
conservative group that Bush addressed in April.
"He does not elevate or magnify his Latino voice in the same way
Marco Rubio does."
Said Javier Palomarez, the CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce, an organization of Hispanic business leaders. "Rubio
speaks the language. Both are sons of immigrants, but one has held
onto the culture and language.”
 A SHIFTING ELECTORATE
Hispanic voters could matter in this year’s Republican presidential
race like never before. Nevada, with a one-quarter Latino
population, holds the third Republican primary on the calendar, with
contests in Colorado and Texas not far behind.
Because no clear front-runner has yet to emerge, the nominating
process could stretch longer than usual and involve more states,
meaning that the traditional early states of Iowa, New Hampshire,
and South Carolina, which largely have white Republican electorates,
will hold less sway.
More than that, it's critically important for the party to attract
Hispanic voters, something it failed to do in 2012, when Mitt Romney
garnered a meager 27 percent of the vote in the general election.
Rubio's pollster, Whit Ayres, estimates the party will need to
garner at least 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2016 to win, as
the share of America's white electorate declines.
That's one reason Cruz’s campaign insists it is not ceding any
ground in the effort win over Latinos.
“Hispanic outreach is going to be very important to him,” said
Catherine Frazier, Cruz’s spokeswoman.
Cruz, in fact, has released Spanish-language ads and has a
Spanish-language website. He has said his message will be built
around "faith, family, patriotism, and hard work."
His campaign told Reuters that it has hired one staffer dedicated to
Hispanic outreach and will be using Cruz's Cuban father, Rafael, as
a surrogate to speak to Hispanic faith groups.
CULTURAL CRITIQUE
Cruz isn’t the first minority candidate to face questions from his
community about his cultural bona fides. In 2007, at just this stage
of the race, Barack Obama’s campaign endured a bevy of stories
centered on the question of whether the Hawaii-born son of a Kenyan
father and white American mother was “black enough” to be the first
African-American president.
Obama ultimately transcended those doubts and drove black voter
turnout to record levels. Cruz may face a tougher road in garnering
Hispanic support, not only because of the presence of Rubio and Bush
in the field, but because of his arms-length approach to his
cultural identity.
While Rubio stayed in Miami immersed in the Spanish-speaking Cuban
exile community, Cruz, born in Canada, settled in Houston with his
father and mother of Irish-Italian descent, Eleanor, and quickly was
assimilated into American culture.
Rafael Cruz strongly believed his family should speak English. Cruz,
whose first name is also Rafael, went by Ted, and attended
evangelical schools. “I’m Cuban, Irish and Italian, and yet somehow
I ended up Southern Baptist,” Cruz has joked.
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Unlike Rubio, who has made his Cuban-American heritage a centerpiece
of his campaign, Cruz seems more comfortable presenting himself
instead as a blunt-talking Texan - down to the cowboy boots he wears
with his suits - than as a self-identified Hispanic.
“When people in Texas think of Ted Cruz, they don’t immediately
think Hispanic,” said Hector de Leon, a lawyer in Austin, Texas
active in Republican politics. “When people in Texas think of
Hispanic, they think south of the border, not someone with a Cuban
father, an Anglo mother, who was born in Canada.”
Despite the Spanish-language ads by Cruz's campaign, Hispanic
activists say his inability to directly speak to the estimated 35
million U.S. Hispanics who speak primarily Spanish is a major
disadvantage in this race.
“Jeb Bush and Rubio - they can be on Univision one minute and CNN
the next,” said Daniel Garza, executive director of the conservative
LIBRE Initiative in Miami.
Cruz’s campaign rejects the idea he is limited by language in
connecting to Latino voters. “Many first and second-generation
Hispanics grew up in similar households,” Frazier said.
IMMIGRATION WORRIES
Garza, like many Hispanic conservatives who spoke to Reuters, was
quick to praise Cruz’s intellect, but it was clear that Rubio or
Bush was their first choice. And, to be sure, the major reasons are
political, not cultural. Cruz’s stance on immigration is viewed by
many Hispanics across the political spectrum as unduly harsh and
inflexible.
“You get the sense that there is very little room for persuading Ted
Cruz on anything,” Garza said. “There is some room where Ted could
soften up a little and you get the sense that he won’t.”
Cruz was an ardent opponent of the 2013 immigration bill
co-sponsored by Rubio. And although Rubio, under pressure from
conservatives, eventually turned against the bill as well, he
appears to be getting credit from Latinos for trying to push toward
a solution to the nation’s immigration crisis.
As part of his outreach effort, Cruz addressed the U.S. Hispanic
Chamber in April, arguing that the Republican Party is the natural
home for voters who value entrepreneurship, family, and
self-reliance.
But that approach belies polls that show a majority of Hispanic
voters favoring a path to legal status for illegal immigrants,
support for Obama’s signature healthcare plan, and government social
programs. That means that whoever the Republican nominee is, be it
Cruz, Rubio, Bush, or someone else, they will face an uphill battle
in convincing Hispanics to defect from the Democrats, who enjoy a
large monopoly on their vote.
The chamber’s Palomarez gives Cruz credit for coming before his
group. But he adds, “I think he’s got a long way to go to convince
people that he understands the Hispanic experience and that he
understands the Hispanic voter.”
(Reporting by James Oliphant, editing by Caren Bohan and Ross
Colvin)
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