The father of Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said black people "need to be educated" about Democrats, so that they will vote Republican. Rafael Cruz, who made the comments at the Western Williamson Republican Club's August meeting, added "the average black does not" understand that the minimum wage is bad.

The Aug. 21 meeting advertised that Rafael would "speak passionately on what can be done to return our nation to the principles that made America exceptional." During the speech, Cruz spoke at length about a recent conversation he said he had with a black pastor in Bakersfield, California.

"I said, as a matter of fact, 'Did you know that Civil Rights legislation was passed by Republicans? It was passed by a Republican Senate under the threat of a filibuster by the Democrats,'" Cruz said. "'Oh, I didn't know that.' And then I said, 'Did you know that every member of the Ku Klux Klan were Democrats from the South?' 'Oh I didn't know that.' You know, they need to be educated."

Cruz cited a book Please Stop Helping Us by Jason Riley, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

"I am going to try to encourage everybody I can to buy a book written by a black journalist. His name is Jason Riley. He wrote a book called Please Stop Helping Us, talking about how all the handouts to blacks have kept blacks in the poorhouse. And I'll tell you what, I am going to make it my task to buy 15 to 20 copies of that book and hand it out to some black leaders to read."

"Jason Riley said in an interview, Did you know before we had minimum wage laws black unemployment and white unemployment were the same? If we increase the minimum wage, black unemployment will skyrocket. See, he understands it, but the average black does not."

The elder Cruz added "every ethnic group" wants "the ability to succeed," saying Democrats "sell this guaranteed utopia" that is "guaranteed mediocrity."

"What we need to sell is the American dream," Cruz said.