Washington (CNN) Donald Trump and Ted Cruz make an unlikely pair of revolutionaries.

Before they rejected the establishment with such fervor, co-opting the fury of heartland voters at distant elites, both spent decades rubbing shoulders with its power brokers and benefiting from its web of connections and credentials.

One is a billionaire with a luxury Boeing and a portfolio of extravagant golf resorts. He speaks for the struggling masses while boasting how rich he is and how he opened his wallet to bend politicians to his will. The oversize persona that could make him president was nurtured by the big media complex he now derides.

The other's rarefied resume is a tour of exclusive America. First the Ivy League Princeton for undergrad and Harvard Law for an advanced degree, then a clerkship for a chief justice of the Supreme Court. In his professional life he returned to argue before the High Court, and then, still only in his early 40s, won a ticket to the clubbiest political enclave of them all: the U.S. Senate. And he married a woman who was a Goldman Sachs executive before leaving to work for his campaign.

Yet remarkably, and to the impotent frustration of their rivals, Trump and Cruz have emerged in a logic-defying election season as vessels for the livid Republican grass-roots, fanning flames around illegal immigration and the plight of blue-collar workers left behind by globalization. They've harnessed despair at the failure of establishment GOP leaders to subvert what they see as Obama-era power grabs, condescension from the "liberal media" and loathing for political correctness on race, gender and sexuality.

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This success poses a question that gets to the heart of the 2016 race as Trump and Cruz, one and two in national polls, seem poised to share the spoils in early voting states: Just how did two men so familiar with the inside become avatars for the outside?

Their methods differ, and perhaps to some degree they are simply benefiting from being in the right place at the right time. But it's indisputable that both Trump and Cruz spotted and then exploited an opportunity thrown up by a singular moment in U.S. political history that in retrospect both seem to have been working toward for years.

"The establishment believes the goal of politics is simply to control the levers of power," said Michael Needham, CEO of the conservative advocacy group Heritage Action for America. "Right now, there are two candidates in the GOP race vying to be the most anti-establishment: Donald Trump based on personality and words, and Ted Cruz based on conservative principles and an unwillingness to be co-opted in Washington."

The concept of the establishment -- the idea of a group of influential power brokers running government and politics, the media and the law, big business and finance -- has become a dominant theme in the 2016 White House race so far.

Trump and Cruz have used it to devalue the resumes of traditional "governing" candidates like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and current Ohio Gov. John Kasich , who were once the conservative radicals of their day.

Candidates with a foot in the insider and outsider camp have meanwhile struggled.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio , for example, was a rabble-rouser himself just six years ago when he rode the tea party wave to usurp establishment favorite Charlie Crist in the GOP primary for their state's open Senate seat. Yet now, after dabbling in immigration reform, Rubio has been branded by his foes as just another turncoat Washington politician.

Trump: A way with words

Trump has effectively leveraged a persona refined on reality television; a mastery of direct, simple language; and an uncanny ear for the economic and philosophical grievances of Americans a million metaphorical miles removed from his Manhattan penthouse.

He might have made his billions in the boardroom, but there has been no more forceful spokesman for many Americans disaffected with the political system, and who, a major new CNN investigation shows, feel he speaks for them in a way no seasoned politician can.

His scrappy, bullying, back-alley schtick is the antidote to the political correctness that people in his base so disdain. He might be loaded and rarely seen in business hours without a suit and tie, but he doesn't hang with the CEO crowd that flocked to Davos for the World Economic Forum last week.

From the gold-plated seat belts in his personal airliner to his helicopters to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach to his beautiful wives, Trump is hardly old money and revels in his wealth and fine things like someone who has won the lottery. It's an image that can resonate more with Main Street than the studied indifference of a Wall Street tycoon who hobnobs comfortably with other members of the 1%.

And by being so direct about his riches, Trump has taken the issue of wealth off the table as a political weapon. He's avoided the fate of 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, a former private equity executive who was vilified by the Obama campaign as apathetic about the sufferings of everyday Americans while he installed car elevators in his house.

And in a neat trick, Trump has actually made the case that his wealth solidifies his outsider appeal by giving him immunity to pressure from establishment donors.

In retrospect, Trump's long "birther" crusade, seeking to prove that Barack Obama was born abroad and therefore constitutionally disqualified from being president, was more than the "carnival barker" distraction of the lunatic political fringe that the Hawaii-born President dismissed it as.

It was a shrewd political base-building strategy that connected Trump with a seething community of Americans susceptible to a populist, even demagogic, message based on race and class that he would later mobilize for his presidential campaign.

Photos: Donald Trump's rise Photos: Donald Trump's rise President-elect Donald Trump has been in the spotlight for years. From developing real estate and producing and starring in TV shows, he became a celebrity long before winning the White House. Hide Caption 1 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump at age 4. He was born in 1946 to Fred and Mary Trump in New York City. His father was a real estate developer. Hide Caption 2 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump, left, in a family photo. He was the second-youngest of five children. Hide Caption 3 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump, center, stands at attention during his senior year at the New York Military Academy in 1964. Hide Caption 4 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump, center, wears a baseball uniform at the New York Military Academy in 1964. After he graduated from the boarding school, he went to college. He started at Fordham University before transferring and later graduating from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania's business school. Hide Caption 5 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump stands with Alfred Eisenpreis, New York's economic development administrator, in 1976 while they look at a sketch of a new 1,400-room renovation project of the Commodore Hotel. After graduating college in 1968, Trump worked with his father on developments in Queens and Brooklyn before purchasing or building multiple properties in New York and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Those properties included Trump Tower in New York and Trump Plaza and multiple casinos in Atlantic City. Hide Caption 6 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump attends an event to mark the start of construction of the New York Convention Center in 1979. Hide Caption 7 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump wears a hard hat at the Trump Tower construction site in New York in 1980. Hide Caption 8 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump was married to Ivana Zelnicek Trump from 1977 to 1990, when they divorced. They had three children together: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric. Hide Caption 9 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise The Trump family, circa 1986. Hide Caption 10 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump uses his personal helicopter to get around New York in 1987. Hide Caption 11 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump stands in the atrium of the Trump Tower. Hide Caption 12 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump attends the opening of his new Atlantic City casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1989. Hide Caption 13 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump signs his second book, "Trump: Surviving at the Top," in 1990. Trump has published at least 16 other books, including "The Art of the Deal" and "The America We Deserve." Hide Caption 14 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump and singer Michael Jackson pose for a photo before traveling to visit Ryan White, a young child with AIDS, in 1990. Hide Caption 15 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump dips his second wife, Marla Maples, after the couple married in a private ceremony in New York in December 1993. The couple divorced in 1999 and had one daughter together, Tiffany. Hide Caption 16 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump putts a golf ball in his New York office in 1998. Hide Caption 17 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise An advertisement for the television show "The Apprentice" hangs at Trump Tower in 2004. The show launched in January of that year. In January 2008, the show returned as "Celebrity Apprentice." Hide Caption 18 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise A 12-inch talking Trump doll is on display at a toy store in New York in September 2004. Hide Caption 19 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump attends a news conference in 2005 that announced the establishment of Trump University. From 2005 until it closed in 2010, Trump University had about 10,000 people sign up for a program that promised success in real estate. Three separate lawsuits -- two class-action suits filed in California and one filed by New York's attorney general -- argued that the program was mired in fraud and deception. Trump's camp rejected the suits' claims as "baseless." And Trump has charged that the New York case against him is politically motivated. Hide Caption 20 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump attends the U.S. Open tennis tournament with his third wife, Melania Knauss-Trump, and their son, Barron, in 2006. Trump and Knauss married in 2005. Hide Caption 21 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump wrestles with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania in 2007. Trump has close ties with the WWE and its CEO, Vince McMahon. Hide Caption 22 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise For "The Apprentice," Trump was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2007. Hide Caption 23 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump appears on the set of "The Celebrity Apprentice" with two of his children -- Donald Jr. and Ivanka -- in 2009. Hide Caption 24 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump poses with Miss Universe contestants in 2011. Trump had been executive producer of the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants since 1996. Hide Caption 25 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise In 2012, Trump announces his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Hide Caption 26 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump speaks in Sarasota, Florida, after accepting the Statesman of the Year Award at the Sarasota GOP dinner in August 2012. It was shortly before the Republican National Convention in nearby Tampa. Hide Caption 27 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump appears on stage with singer Nick Jonas and television personality Giuliana Rancic during the 2013 Miss USA pageant. Hide Caption 28 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise In June 2015, during a speech from Trump Tower, Trump announced that he was running for President. He said he would give up "The Apprentice" to run. Hide Caption 29 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump -- flanked by U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, left, and Ted Cruz -- speaks during a CNN debate in Miami on March 10. Trump dominated the GOP primaries and emerged as the presumptive nominee in May. Hide Caption 30 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise The Trump family poses for a photo in New York in April. Hide Caption 31 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump speaks during a campaign event in Evansville, Indiana, on April 28. After Trump won the Indiana primary, his last two competitors dropped out of the GOP race. Hide Caption 32 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention in July, accepting the party's nomination for President. "I have had a truly great life in business," he said. "But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country -- to go to work for you. It's time to deliver a victory for the American people." Hide Caption 33 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump faces Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the first presidential debate, which took place in Hempstead, New York, in September. Hide Caption 34 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump apologizes in a video, posted to his Twitter account in October, for vulgar and sexually aggressive remarks he made a decade ago regarding women. "I said it, I was wrong and I apologize," Trump said, referring to lewd comments he made during a previously unaired taping of "Access Hollywood." Multiple Republican leaders rescinded their endorsements of Trump after the footage was released. Hide Caption 35 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump walks on stage with his family after he was declared the election winner on November 9. "Ours was not a campaign, but rather, an incredible and great movement," he told his supporters in New York. Hide Caption 36 of 37 Photos: Donald Trump's rise Trump is joined by his family as he is sworn in as President on January 20. Hide Caption 37 of 37

To connect with his "silent majority," Trump avoids the soaring campaign poetry of Obama, the eye-glazing wonkery of a Jeb Bush or Democratic national front-runner Hillary Clinton, or the gassy lingo of a candidate baked in the conventions of Capitol Hill.

Instead, he holds forth spontaneously, unfurling outrage-laden streams of consciousness from his podium. He seems to have no filter between his brain and his mouth.

It's an intimate and effective form of communication, even when delivered in a stadium, and has much in common with the confiding monologue of another wealthy spokesman for the common man, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. This blunt, outspoken style also happens to be tailor-made for Twitter, Trump's conduit direct to his faithful flock.

While GOP elites cringe at Trump's rants against Mexicans Muslims , women and others, his supporters simply see further affirmation that he's just like them.

"He speaks like a guy down at the loading dock," said Dave Shiflett, who ghost wrote one of the billionaire's first political manifestos, "Trump: The America We Deserve," published in 2000.

"He comes across as a man of the people because he is voicing their anger with the political class and all of the elites," he continued. "He is always a hydrogen bomb going off and there is no subtlety to what he says."

Trump hinted at his magic political formula in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on January 20, in a speech torching Republican aristocrats. He said George Will, a veteran conservative Washington Post columnist, looked "stupid" without his glasses and mocked Karl Rove, a former George W. Bush White House political director, as a "boiler waiting to explode."

But he also indulged in a rare moment of self-reflection, explaining how, despite coming from a different universe than audience members, he had become their champion.

"They always say, 'He is so plain spoken,'" Trump said of the political commentariat. "Plain spoken? I know more than any of these guys. Plain spoken? I went to (an) Ivy League school, the whole thing," Trump said.

"I can come up with extremely nice words, except there is no better word to describe our leader and our administration than the word ... what? ... stupid. Stupid."

He went on to use the word several times: "These are stupid people. These are stupid people. What is going on in Washington is purely stupid. Give me a better word than that and I will use it."

He concluded, "All the Ivy League I have, the Wharton School of Finance, somehow they have never come up with a better word to describe what we are going through."

For Shiflett, such language is the root of Trump's appeal.

"All these politicians are people who everybody thinks are just double-talk and they won't say what they mean," he said. "Trump says, 'To hell with that. I am a regular guy.'"

Cruz: Always on the outside

Few people would refer to Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz as a regular guy.

But it's his good fortune, or perhaps a sign of how he's molded his political persona to his times, that he finds himself on the rise in a turbulent political season.

Whereas Trump's anti-elite persona is based on performance art, Cruz relies mainly on ideological positioning.

Superficially, Cruz's life seems one long parable about the value of insider connections.

His intellect and ambition greased his path from Princeton to Harvard Law and to a clerkship in Chief Justice William Rehnquist's chambers. He worked on the Florida recount operation for GOP candidate George W. Bush in 2000, which the Bush dynasty packed with establishment titans like James Baker III.

As solicitor general of Texas, Cruz became a star advocate at the bar of the Supreme Court, then made his way to the U.S. Senate.

But a closer look at his past reveals a man who always gravitated to the outside and offers clues to the bond he has established with voters over suspicion of elites.

Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a campaign rally at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on Monday, May 2. Hide Caption 1 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz holds up the hand of Carly Fiorina at a campaign rally in Indianapolis on Wednesday, April 27. Cruz named Fiorina, a former presidential candidate, as his running mate. Hide Caption 2 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz celebrates his Wisconsin primary win with his wife, Heidi, and Gov. Scott Walker in Milwaukee on Tuesday, April 5. Walker endorsed Cruz for the presidency. Hide Caption 3 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career With his wife by his side, Cruz tours the Dane Manufacturing facility before speaking to workers in Dane, Wisconsin, on Thursday, March 24. Hide Caption 4 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz speaks during the CNN Republican debate in Miami on Thursday, March 10. Hide Caption 5 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz and his wife wave to the crowd at Liberty University after he announced his presidential candidacy in Lynchburg, Virginia, on March 23, 2015. Hide Caption 6 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz speaks during the 2013 NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits at the George R. Brown Convention Center on May 3, 2013, in Houston, Texas. Hide Caption 7 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz poses with his wife, Heidi, and his daughters Caroline and Catherine. Hide Caption 8 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz (left) fields questions from Bruce Rastetter at the Iowa Ag Summit on March 7, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. The event allows the invited speakers, many of whom are potential 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls, to outline their views on agricultural issue. Hide Caption 9 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel (left) listens as Cruz (right) speaks during a roundtable discussion on Capitol Hill March 2, 2015 in Washington, D.C. Wiesel, Cruz and Rabbi Scmuley Boteach (center) participated in a discussion entitled 'The Meaning of Never Again: Guarding Against a Nuclear Iran.' Hide Caption 10 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Governor Greg Abbott (center) speaks alongside Cruz (left), Attorney General Ken Paxton (right) at a joint press conference February 18, 2015, in Austin, Texas. Hide Caption 11 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Sen. Patrick Leahy (right) escorts Loretta Lynch back from a lunch break as Cruz (left) sits nearby during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee January 28, 2015, on Capitol Hill. Hide Caption 12 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz greets supporters at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition convention on January 18, 2015, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A variety of conservative presidential hopefuls spoke at the gathering on the second day of a three-day event. Hide Caption 13 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz (left) and then-Texas Governor Rick Perry stand together during a press conference at the front gate of Fort Hood about Iraq war veteran, Ivan Lopez, who killed three and wounded 16 before taking his own life on April 4, 2014, in Fort Hood, Texas. Hide Caption 14 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career (Left to right) Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. John McCain and Cruz listen as President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address on January 28, 2014, in Washington, D.C. Hide Caption 15 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (second right), poses with Republican senators-elect Jeff Flake (left), Deb Fischer (second left), and Cruz (right) at the U.S. Capitol on November 13, 2012, in Washington, D.C. Hide Caption 16 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz speaks to reporters on September 25, 2013, after ending his talk-a-thon on the floor of the US Senate in Washington, D.C. Hide Caption 17 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz speaks as then-Rep. Michele Bachmann (left), Sen. Mike Lee (second right) and Sen. Rand Paul (right) listen during a news conference May 16, 2013, on Capitol Hill. Hide Caption 18 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz listens to testimony during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on April 22, 2013, in Washington, D.C. Hide Caption 19 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz holds a news conference to announce the plan to defund Obamacare on March 13, 2013. Hide Caption 20 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Cruz speaks at the CPAC on March 6, 2014, in National Harbor, Maryland. Hide Caption 21 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Then-Senate Republican Candidate and Texas Solicitor General Cruz speaks at the 'Patriots for Romney-Ryan Reception' on August 29, 2012, in Tampa, Florida. Hide Caption 22 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Then-Senate Republican Candidate and Texas Solicitor General Cruz speaks during the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on August 28, 2012. Hide Caption 23 of 24 Photos: Moments from Ted Cruz's career Then-Senate Republican Candidate and Texas Solicitor General Cruz speaks during the Republican National Convention in 2012. Hide Caption 24 of 24

He was a constitutional conservative even when surrounded by liberal academia. At the Supreme Court, he represented Texas, a perpetual rebel state.

In the Senate, he did what he said he would do: tear away at what he reviles as the "Washington cabal."

"How do we win elections? In the contrast between corrupt Washington and the American people," Cruz told the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2014 in a speech that would provide a political blueprint for his presidential campaign.

Cruz did nothing but infuriate the party establishment once he arrived in Washington. He tried to shut down the government over Obamacare, and he angered then-House Speaker John Boehner by crossing the Capitol to fan an insurgency among radical lawmakers over budget issues. Eviscerating the Senate's courtly manners, he accused Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a fellow Republican, of lying.

His attitude has made him toxic to his colleagues but seduced those who feel much the same way about the GOP leadership.

"The establishment dislikes (Cruz and Trump) for various reasons, but they fear Cruz because he has not been able to be co-opted by the corrupt system in Washington," said Needham of Heritage Action.

The unimpeachable anti-establishment credentials that Cruz built up in Washington, combined with his natural affinity for evangelical Christians and existing popularity among tea party Republicans, have built him a powerful political base.

The revolution fights itself

It was inevitable, given their success in the polls and the similar anti-elite trajectories of their campaigns, that in the end Trump and Cruz would clash over who is the true anti-establishment champion. Their revolution is turning on itself.

Trump is calling Cruz "nasty" and a Canadian who is not eligible to run for president given that he was born in Calgary, Alberta. And as he seeks a knockout punch that could stall the Cruz campaign with a defeat in Iowa, Trump has also defended his own anti-establishment credentials.

"The establishment, the media, the special interests, the lobbyists, the donors, they are all against me ... they are really trying to stop me," Trump said in a Facebook video posted this week.

His move may have been partly designed to defuse Cruz's own emerging attack that Trump's anti-establishment persona is all a front and that once in power his natural, deal-making instincts would reassert themselves in an accommodation with party leaders.

"The establishment ... is consolidating around Donald Trump. The establishment has now picked Donald Trump," Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told CNN last week, after former Republican presidential nominee and Senate leader Bob Dole said Cruz would be worse for the GOP than Trump.

"Why? Because the establishment in Washington, the dealmakers, they know that Donald Trump will make a deal. He will play ball with them. He will keep them all in power. He'll keep the gravy train rolling," Tyler claimed.

It's an argument that voters will begin to weigh in on Monday in Iowa.