Ted Cruz has not given up on the conservative movement even though he lost in the primary to Donald Trump.
Rather, he just met with conservative leaders in Virginia to discuss his future as the leader of the conservative movement and how to prepare for a potential run for the presidency in 2020:
THE HILL – Texas Sen. Ted Cruz attended a confidential dinner with more than 20 top conservatives on Tuesday night to plan his comeback as a movement leader in the mold of Ronald Reagan.
The dinner was at the Virginia home of conservative activist Brent Bozell and the agenda was to plot Cruz’s future and the future of the conservative movement.
The undertone of the dinner was about how to position Cruz for a future tilt at the presidency and to spearhead the conservative movement from his seat in the Senate, those in attendance said.
Dining with Cruz and his chief of staff Paul Teller were some of the most powerful figures in the conservative movement.
The spectrum of economic, national security and social conservatives seated at the table included Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint, Club for Growth president David McIntosh, direct mail guru Richard Viguerie, NRA board member and former Cincinnati mayor Ken Blackwell, and Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser, sources confirmed.
According to those in attendance, the leaders discussed how they could work more effectively together and how to harness their vast financial and human networks in the service of conservative principles and Cruz’s career.
Combined, those at the table have access to hundreds of millions of dollars and some of the largest ground armies on the right.
Many of leaders at the dinner want Cruz to run for president again, and they are viewing Cruz’s unsuccessful 2016 run for president as similar to Reagan’s failed attempt in 1976 to unseat the incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford.
Private conversations with sources at the dinner kept turning up the same analogy: Reagan came back to win the presidency in 1980. And Cruz, they think, can do the same in 2020.
Cruz’s office declined to comment on the dinner and none of the five sources The Hill spoke to who attended would speak on the record about the conversation.
Contacted late Wednesday, Bozell said he wouldn’t reveal off-the-record conversations but stressed the dinner “was not about what Ted Cruz was going to do with Donald Trump.”
“There was just discussion of the future of the movement and the future of Ted Cruz as the leader of the movement,” Bozell told The Hill.
This doesn’t surprise me, as Cruz seems very methodical and thorough in planning his future. I am glad though that he’s contemplating how best to lead the conservative movement into the future. We need to have a strong opposition voice to continue the movement so that we are ready to win a presidential election next time.