Des Moines, Iowa — The love affair between the Iowa voters and Ted Cruz is going strong.

The Texas senator, pacing across the stage at the Iowa Freedom Summit in a tan jacket and slacks, praised the state’s “unique and special role in the political process.” Iowa voters, he said, have a responsibility “to scrutinize every candidate for national office, to look them in the eyes and to hold them to account.”


The tea-party darling urged them to be discerning when presidential contenders begin streaming through the state vaunting their conservative credentials. It helps, of course, that nobody can out-conservative Ted Cruz.

“Every candidate is going to come in front of you and say I’m the most conservative guy who ever lived,” Cruz said. “Well gosh darnit, talk is cheap. One of the most important roles men and women of Iowa will play is to say, ‘Don’t talk, show me.’”

Cruz’s suggestion was that his stand against the Affordable Care Act, which resulted in a government shutdown a year ago and his refusal to compromise — in fact, even to make friends — in Washington on a range of issues have proven his mettle somebody worthy of their vote.


The senator went on to make calls that have become standard in his public remarks: He demanded the repeal of Obamacare, the abolition of the IRS, and the restoration of American leadership in the world.


“There are 110,000 employees at the IRS,” he said. “We need to padlock that building ad put every one of those 110,000 on our southern border. If you crossed border and the first thing you saw was thousands of IRS agents, you’d turn around and go home too.” The crowd whooped and cheered.

Cruz also said that any American who joins the Islamic State should have his citizenship stripped. The crowd erupted in applause. Cruz, too, applauded his proposal.