Ted Cruz rails against 'bipartisan corruption' in Nashville speech

Ted Cruz fired up his loyalists during a campaign stop in Nashville on Tuesday, railing against what he called "bipartisan corruption" of career politicians in Washington, D.C., and calling on Tennessee Republicans to nominate a "strong and proven conservative."

"We are here today because we are not going to go quietly into the night," Cruz, the junior U.S senator from Texas and surging presidential candidate, told a standing-room only crowd of nearly 1,000 gathered for a rally at Rocketown in downtown Nashville.

Cruz, a conservative firebrand who has steadily climbed in recent polls, came to Nashville as part of a 12-city swing to try and strengthen his base beyond the four early-voting states and into places like Tennessee that will be settled on "Super Tuesday" March 1.

Wearing blue jeans, a button-up shirt and boots, Cruz said Tennessee and other so-called “SEC primary” states in the South would have a “powerful voice” in the GOP nomination this year. Cruz, who turned 45 years old on Tuesday, was greeted with chants of “We want Ted!” and a rendition of “Happy Birthday” from the crowd.

In a roughly 30-minute speech, Cruz hit on themes that he discussed during August appearances he made in Franklin and Murfreesboro. If elected, Cruz said he would "rescind every single illegal and unconstitutional executive action" taken by President Barack Obama, direct the U.S. Department of Justice to launch a full investigation into Planned Parenthood and end Common Core education standards.

He vowed to "rip to shreds" the Iranian nuclear deal; relocate the United States' embassy in Israel to Jerusalem; repeal the Affordable Care Act; abolish the Internal Revenue Service; and take on the Environmental Protection Agency and the "alphabet soup of federal agencies that have descended like locusts on small businesses."

"All across the state of Tennessee and all across the country, people are waking up and there is a spirit of revival," said Cruz, who likened the state of America right now to the 1970s under Democratic President Jimmy Carter. "I am here today to tell you, help is on the way."

Cruz spoke at a suburban Knoxville high school on Tuesday morning and was to finish his day in Little Rock, Ark.. In Nashville, he referenced the July shooting at a Navy reserve center and military recruitment center in Chattanooga that left four Marines and a sailor dead. He called the event "a tragic consequence" of Obama's gun policies.

"What that means is the next time a Jihadist shows up at a recruiting center in Chattanooga, he's going to encounter the business end of firearms wielded by a dozen Marines," he said to a roar. "We will have a commander in chief who makes clear to the world, we will defeat radical Islam. We'll have a president willing to utter the words, 'radical Islamic terrorism.' "

Cruz said that under his presidency the U.S. would "utterly and completely destroy ISIS." On immigration, he vowed to cut off federal funds for the "Sanctuary Cities" program, "build a wall that works" between and Mexico and the United States and end health care benefits for immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Cruz has sharpened his tone of late, particularly against rival Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. The two sparred over immigration and national security during the most recent televised GOP presidential debate last week. On Tuesday, however, Cruz made no mention of Rubio or GOP front-runner Donald Trump. Instead, he zeroed in solely on Obama and the Democratic field, especially Hillary Clinton, whom he called “utterly out of touch” with the American people.

A new national Quinnipiac University poll on the GOP primary released this week found that Cruz, with 24 percent of support from likely Republican voters, has climbed to within 4 percentage points of Trump. Cruz and Trump are first and second in all recent polls on the Iowa caucus, which kicks off voting on Feb. 1

Addressing reporters in Nashville, Cruz declined to launch any criticism toward Trump. He was open to an idea pushed by Trump, who's rarely directed his ire at Cruz, that the Republican primary is now boiling down to just the two of them.

“Donald may well be right that this is turning more and more into a two-man race between Donald Trump and me,” Cruz said. “And I think if that’s the case, the decision will be made by voters on who has the experience, who has the record and who has been a consistent conservative.”

Cruz, whose support in Tennessee includes many tea party leaders, was introduced in Nashville Tuesday by the candidate’s father, Rev. Rafael Cruz. Helping introduce Cruz were Kevin Kookogey, former Williamson County Republican Party chairman and Cruz’s Tennessee campaign chairman, and Lyndon Allen, pastor at Woodmont Bible Church in Nashville.

Cruz’s appearance in Tennessee was met with a statement from the Clinton campaign criticizing Cruz and other Republican candidates’ opposition to a pathway of citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Rubio has attacked him over the same issue, arguing that Cruz has flipped his position to now oppose a pathway to citizenship.

The most recent presidential poll of Tennesseans who consider themselves Republicans, taken by Vanderbilt University, found Cruz in third place in Tennessee, behind both Ben Carson and Trump. That poll, however, was conducted more than three weeks ago.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.