After his triumph in Iowa, Ted Cruz delivered an beautifully eloquent speech resonating with love for America. To comment on it would be superfluous; it is, simply put, a wonderfully articulate and moving response to the ills that have plagued the nation during the long night of Barack Obama’s tenure as well as a stinging rebuke to the last 100 years of the left attempting to remold the country and shatter the American ideal.
Here’s the complete transcript:
God bless the great state of Iowa. Let me first of all say, to God be the glory. Tonight is a victory for the grassroots. Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives across Iowa, and all across this great nation. Tonight the state of Iowa has spoken. Iowa has sent notice that the Republican nominee and the next president of the United States will not be chosen by the media. Will not be chosen by the Washington establishment. Will not be chosen by the lobbyists. But will be chosen by the most incredible powerful force, where all sovereignty resides in our nation, by we the people: the American people.
Tonight, thanks to the incredible hard work of everyone gathered here, of courageous conservatives across the state, we together earned the votes of 48,608 Iowans. To put in perspective, your incredible victory that you have won tonight, that is the most votes ever cast for any Republican primary winner.
Tonight is a victory for millions of Americans, who have shouldered the burden of seven years of Washington deals run amok. Tonight is a victory for every American who’s watched in dismay as career politicians in Washington in both parties refuse to listen and too often fail to keep their commitments to the people. Tonight is a victory for every American who understands that after we survive eight long years of the Obama presidency, that no one personality can right the wrongs done by Washington. The millions who understand that it is a commitment to the Constitution to our shared insistence that we rise and return to a higher standard, the very standard that gave birth to the greatest nation that the world has ever known. To the revolutionary understanding that all men and all women are created equal. That our rights do not come from the Democratic party or the Republican party or even from the Tea Party. Our rights come from our Creator.
And the federal government’s role, the federal government’s responsibility, is to defend those fundamental rights, to defend us. And while Americans will continue to suffer under a president who has set an agenda that is causing millions to hurt across this country I want to remind you of the promise of Scripture. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
Tonight, Iowa has proclaimed to the world, morning is coming. Morning is coming. From day one this campaign has been a movement. For millions of Americans across this country to organize, to rally, to come together. Whatever Washington says, they cannot keep the people down. And tonight is a testament to the people’s commitments to their yearnings to get back to our core commitments: free market principles, Constitutional liberties, and the Judeo-Christian values that built this great nation.
When the Washington lobbyists settled on other candidates in this race, when the media in one voice said a conservative cannot win, nationwide over 800,000 contributions poured in to tedcruz.org as courageous conservatives said, “Yes, we can.” 800,000 contributions at tedcruz.org with an average contribution of $67. That is the power of the grassroots.
But it’s more than that. It’s 12,000 volunteers here in the state of Iowa. It’s over 200,000 volunteers all across this great nation.
You know, during the course of this campaign people have asked Heidi and me, “Are you tired?” And I will admit it is 16, 18 hours a day, 6, 7 days a week. We are not tired at all.
To the contrary, we are inspired by each and every one of you. I leap out of bed every morning amazed that at a time when our country is in crisis, every one of us has the opportunity to stand and lead, that we have been put in a place of leadership for such a time as this.
I’m inspired by the stories of heroism that I see every day, working men, like Jerry Dunleavy from Columbus, Ohio, who requested an entire month off his job to come to Iowa to live at Camp Cruz and to volunteer full time. When his employer refused to give him the time off, Jerry quit his job and came anyway.
(Responding to someone yelling, “I love you, Ted!) And I love the great state of Iowa!
I’m inspired by people like Elliott Gazer and Josh Hammer, students at the University of Chicago who spent their winter break at Camp Cruz. But they didn’t stop there; they came back this weekend they hit the phones and they hit the pavement, campaigning so that students across this country, upon graduation, rather than having mountains of debt will instead have 2, 3, 4, 5 high-paying job offers and a chance at the American dream.
I’m inspired by people like Alexandra Ziegler, a 13-year-old girl from Lubbock, Texas, who, yesterday, at our campaign headquarters made 823 volunteer calls.
That has always been the strength of this campaign. Are the men and women gathered here and courageous conservatives standing up and speaking out and lifting us up in prayer, lifting this country up in prayer each and every day. And let me say our leadership team, our Iowa state chairman, Matt Schultz, what an extraordinary job you have done organizing a grass roots army. And let me say to our Iowa state director, Brian English, what an amazing job Brian has done.
And to our national co-chairmen, Bob Vander Plaats and Steve King, these men have become dear and trusted friends. They are warriors. They are men of principle. They stand and speak the truth. They stand to defend their values and let me tell you, these leaders, day after day, week after week, have been crawling under broken glass with knives between their teeth. I’m grateful for the support, the early support of my friend, Steve Deace.
We’re grateful for the over 150 pastors across the state of Iowa who joined our team to energize people of faith. We’re grateful to the state senators, to the state representatives, to the volunteer leaders in each of the 99 counties who stood up and said, We will be heard and this will be decided by the grass roots.”
And then, I am so grateful to national leaders, people like Dr. James Dobson. And Tony Perkins. And Phil Robertson. And Governor Rick Perry. And Glenn Beck. Leaders who have stood and led, bringing together and coalescing conservatives here in Iowa and across the country.
Do you want to know what scares the Washington cartel?
(Audience : “You!”)
Actually, not remotely. I don’t scare them in the tiniest bit. What scares them is you. What scares them is that old Reagan coalition is coming back together, of conservatives. We’re seeing conservatives and evangelicals and libertarian and Reagan Democrats all coming together as one and that terrifies Washington, D.C.
And so to the people of Iowa, Heidi and I say thank you for your incredible hospitality, for your love, thank you for welcoming us into your homes, into your living rooms. Thank you for welcoming my father to preach from the pulpits of your churches. And let me say to my parents, Mom, thank you. For the incredible, unconditional love that you have given me every day of my life, the knowledge that whatever I might do, whatever I might say that my mother loves me.
To my cousin, Bebe, who is like a sister to me, we grew up together, I love you, Beebs.
And to my Dad, a man who came from Cuba at age 18 with nothing. With $100 in his underwear. He doesn’t carry money in his underwear anymore. A man who was imprisoned, who was tortured, who washed dishes making $0.50 an hour, who has lived the American dream; and a man who is today a pastor, traveling the country preaching the gospel.
My Dad is 76 years old and yet he’s got the energy of a teenager and Dad you have been my hero my whole life. I love you, Dad.
When the sun rises tomorrow, this campaign will take the next step. We will continue to campaign the same way: sitting down, person to person, leader to leader, VFW halls, Dunkin Donuts, returning to the great state of New Hampshire. And let me speak for a minute to the men and women of the state of New Hampshire. 36 years ago, you welcomed to the Granite State a candidate running for president who was also deeply disliked by the Washington establishment and the Washington cartel. A candidate who had been dismissed outright by the media. Some polls had him 15 to 20 points behind. But you refused to let the establishment and media do your thinking for you. You refused to let them tell you how to vote. You wanted a candidate who didn’t adopt his positions because of the latest opinion polls, but instead because of a deep and underlying conservative philosophy that grounded him so that he knew exactly what he believed, exactly what the principles were that built this great nation.
And so tonight I want to say to the people of New Hampshire, thank you for what you did 36 years ago. Thank you for giving America, and the world, and yes, history itself, our 40th president of the United States, Ronald Wilson Reagan. And I ask the people of New Hampshire, and the people of South Carolina, and the people of Nevada, and the people of the super Tuesday states on March 1: to each of you, do not listen to our words. Do not listen to the rhetoric from campaigns, but rather, hold each and every one of us accountable, hold me accountable and every other candidate accountable to be a consistent conservative.
If you want a candidate to repeal Obamacare, then support a candidate who has led the fight to repeal Obamacare. If you want a president to stop amnesty, to secure the borders and keep us safe, then support a candidate who has led the fight to stop amnesty to secure the borders and to keep us safe. If you want a candidate to support life and marriage and religious liberty, then support a candidate who spent decades of his life fighting to defend life and marriage and religious liberty. If you want a candidate to defend the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, then ask of every candidate, “Where were you in the spring of 2013 when Barack Obama and Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer tried to undermine the second amendment right to keep and bear arms?”
If you want a candidate who will stand unapologetically with the nation of Israel, then support a candidate who has led the fight over and over again to stand by our friend and ally, the nation of Israel.
And if you want a commander in chief who will fulfill the most solemn obligation of the president to keep this nation safe, then support a candidate who has demonstrated the commitment, the judgment, the experience, the clarity of vision, to identify our enemy, to call it by its name, radical Islamic terrorism, and to utterly and completely defeat ISIS. If I am elected president, every militant on the face of the planet will know, if you go and join ISIS, if you wage jihad on the United States of America, if you attempt to murder innocent Americans you are signing your death warrant.
And I’ll tell you this. If the other states across the country follow the lead of the good men and women of Iowa, and support this campaign, then I tell you this: This July, in Cleveland, you will hear these words spoken from the podium of the unified Republican convention:
Tonight, I want to say to every member of the Democratic party, who believes in limited government, in personal opportunity and the United States Constitution, and a safe and secure America: come home. To the Reagan Democrats, your party has left you, and the Republican Party wants you, we welcome you back. Because together, this year, Republicans and the Reagan Democrats can send an unmistakable message, the message of a Reagan-like landslide that once and for all will drive the liberal elites and the Washington cartel into the Potomac and out to sea, never to be seen again. Together, we can bring out a new era of economic growth, of military strength, of international security and the future of hope that our children deserve. If we commit to do more than hope, if we aspire to govern by a higher standard, a standard that transcends political party and race and gender and income, and to everyone that is tired of a president that divides us daily on racial lines, on ethnic lines, on religious lines, on gender lines, on socioeconomic lines, we will have a president that once again seeks to bring us together and unite us on our shared values of who we are as Americans.
The most solemn responsibility of the president is to keep this country safe. And we will stop the weakness and appeasement; we will stop making excuses for global bullies and terrorists and rather, simply do what it takes to defeat them. I give you my solemn promise. We will finally, finally, finally secure the borders and end sanctuary cities.
And I want to speak for a moment to the soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines, I want to speak to the moms and dads who have a child serving overseas; I want to speak to the husbands and wives who wake up at night wondering if their loved one is still alive; I want to speak to the little kids who have been waiting months upon months to get a hug from daddy, a kiss from mommy; to all of our fighting men and women who have been sent into combat with their arms tied behind their back with rules of engagement that are wrong, that are immoral; that will end on January 2017. You will have a commander in chief who finally has your back.
And to the police officers, and the firemen, and the first responders, the heroes who rushed into burning buildings instead of out of burning buildings, the last seven years of having a president, having an attorney general that demonizes you, that vilifies you, that sides with the criminals and looters instead of the brave men and women of law enforcement, that will end on January 20, 2017.
So tonight, the state of Iowa, the Democrats here seem to be in a virtual tie, between one candidate, who admits he’s a socialist, and the other candidate who pretends she’s not. I wish them both luck. But I will tell you this, as Margaret Thatcher observed, the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples’ money.
And let me tell you tonight, I cannot wait to stand on that debate stage with Hillary Clinton.
We will win by speaking the truth with a smile. The truth is the American people are fed up with Washington, with a corrupt class that enriches itself and leaves behind the working men and women of this country. The truth is the American people are fed up with a federal government that views the Bill of Rights and the Constitution as a rough draft, as an inconvenience, as something to be set aside, and we are ready to get back to the vision of the framers, of protecting the unalienable rights given to each of us by our Creator.
You know, the reason all of you are here is the same reason I am here; the same reason Heidi and I have spent every waking moment for the last year: We love our kids, our girls, Caroline and Catherine, at age seven and age five.
Every one of us here, when we go to bed at night, we think, “What kind of world are we leaving our kids? Are we giving our children a brighter future? Are we giving our children what our parents gave us? A country with greater freedom, greater opportunity, more promise, more hope?”
You want to know why I’m getting on a plane in about an hour and flying all night to New Hampshire to knock on doors and sit down and visit with people and ask for their support?
The reason is simple: Because when I look my girls in the eyes, ten, twenty years from now, I am not going to tell them, “We could have stood up and saved this country, but we didn’t do everything we could.” Instead, I’m going to tell them: “Millions of Americans saw that America was in jeopardy and we rose up together and said, ‘We are going to preserve this nation for our children and grandchildren.’”
To those who supported other candidates in this race, the Republican Party is so blessed to have a bounty of talented young dynamic candidates, people who are friends, people who I like and respect. To those who supported other candidates, I will tell you, each of them, we welcome you as part of our team. Because if we stand together as one, if the American people stand together and say, “We want our country back,” there is no force in Washington that can stand against the American people, that can stand against the grassroots, that can stand against our unity. We are going to do this together, as a movement from the people. And I tell you tonight, Iowa has made clear to America and the world, morning is coming.
Morning is coming.
Thank you and God bless you.
Video below:
