In a witty, optimistic, and passionate speech that showed why he is the politician in D.C. that most resonates with the Tea Party and conservative grassroots, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Thursday said he believed Obamacare will be completely repealed.

“I am absolutely convinced that we are going to repeal every single word of Obamacare,” Cruz, a potential presidential contender who is leading among Tea Party voters in nearly every 2016 presidential poll, said to a standing ovation.

Speaking at an event honoring the five-year anniversary of the Tea Party movement that was sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots, Cruz said that Democrats are “running fast from Obamacare.” He noted even the late-night comedians have turned on the disastrous law that he has worked relentlessly to try to defund.

He quipped that he was repeating himself when speaking about not listening to what Democrats and the media have to say and even impersonated Jay Leno’s mockery of Obamacare. But his main message, consistent with what he has said before, is that a grassroots revolution similar to the one that ushered in President Ronald Reagan after Jimmy Carter’s failed domestic and foreign policies in the late 1970s is stirring outside of the Beltway today.

He mentioned the victories on gun control that the grassroots enjoyed last year and the pressure they put on politicians to defund Obamacare, which was ultimately unsuccessful because the GOP establishment was never on board with the plan. Cruz also said that the movement that focuses on free-market principles, limited government, and getting back to the Constitution scares politicians because it seeks to hold them accountable.

“There is nothing that scares politicians more than the people gathered in this room,” Cruz said. “Liberty is never safer than when politicians are terrified.”

He said the Tea Party movement that “rocketed into existence” is the “most exciting political development in decades” because it is not a “top-down” movement.

“It arose from the people,” Cruz said, noting that the Tea Party movement confuses the Washington establishment because there is not a single pooh-bah it can co-opt.

Cruz said the Tea Party movement is an organic one and, as he found out when he started his upstart and eventually successful Senate bid, one has to put a lot of miles on the car to get the movement’s support. The response in the room showed why besides Sarah Palin, whom Cruz said he would not be in the Senate without, Cruz may be the figure that resonates most with grassroots conservatives, particularly in places like Iowa and South Carolina which host the first presidential nominating contest.

Cruz said the “grassroots revolution that is sweeping the country” has made him hopeful and optimistic about the future of the country, despite where President Barack Obama is trying to take it.