How We Win the Election—and the Country

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, gave the following address to the Values Voters Summit in Washington, D.C. He ultimately won their straw poll for the third year in a row. Here is a partially edited transcript of the words that won the crowd over. —Ed.

Wow! God bless the Value Voters Summit.

You know, there’s an ancient Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. These are interesting times.

Yesterday, Pope Francis was in Washington. Wonderful to welcome him here. I have to say, the press conference was a little awkward, because every time the reporters addressed a question to “Your Holiness,” Barack Obama answered.

Then today, the president of China, President Xi [Jinping], is in town. Media all across the world are reporting on this historic meeting of the world’s most powerful communist and the president of China.

How many of you all have watched the Republican debates? How fantastic is it that we have such an array of young, charismatic, talented, principled leaders stepping forward to lead this party and to lead this country? And what a contrast with the Democrats.

It is amazing to watch the Democrats as they keep moving their debates. First it was going to be August, then it was September, then it was October. They may just move it to 2017.

You know, in a few months we may see the first presidential debate held at Leavenworth.

I am so honored to be back with so many friends today. I want to say, my friend Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, does incredible work in this country. You want to talk about a strong, principled, conservative who scares the living daylights out of Washington. But I have to tell you, Tony doesn’t scare Washington nearly as much as the men and women gathered in this ballroom do.

You want to know how much each of you terrify Washington? Yesterday, John Boehner was speaker of the House. Y’all come to town, and somehow that changes. My own request is can you come more often? Tony, we need to schedule these weekly—once a week.

Listen, every one of us—we know that our country’s in crisis. We know that this is not a typical time in politics. We’re bankrupting our kids and grandkids. Our Constitutional rights are under assault each and every day from Washington. And America has receded from leadership in the world, it is making the world a much more dangerous place. But I want to come to you this morning with a word of hope and encouragement and exhortation. All across this country, this American people are waking up. And I’ll tell you today, help is on the way. So I want to ask everyone here to look forward to January 2017.

If I am elected president, let me tell you what I intend to do on the first day in office.

The first thing I intend to do is rescind every single illegal and unconstitutional executive action. The president tells us he’s got a phone and he’s got a pen. Well, you live by the pen you die by the pen. And my pen has got an eraser. But sadly, the corruption’s not been limited to the White House. It has extended across every agency of the federal government.

And the second thing I intend to do on my first day in office is instruct the Department of Justice to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood and these horrible videos. And to prosecute any and all criminal conduct by that organization. The administration of justice should be blind to party of ideology. The only fidelity of the Department of Justice should be to the laws and the Constitution of the United States of America.

The third thing I intend to do on the first day in office is instruct the Department of Justice and the IRS and every other federal agency, that the persecution of religious liberty ends today. That means that every service man and woman can worship the Lord God Almighty with all of his heart, mind and soul, and his commanding officer has nothing to say about it. That means the Little Sisters of the Poor, who Pope Francis visited this week, will find that the case against them has been dismissed.

You know, Kim Davis is here. Just a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Kim in a Kentucky jailhouse. Now, six months, a year ago, if I had come and said that a Christian woman was going to be thrown in jail, locked up in jail, for living her faith, the media would have dismissed me as a nutcase. That’s where we are today.

And I’ll tell you, Kim and I, we embraced. And I told her, I said, Kim, thank you. I said, Kim, you are inspiring millions across this country by standing for your faith.

You know, the book of Acts tells us that when Paul and Silas were in jail, that God brought an earthquake and broke open the jail cell. And what I told Kim, is I said you are being lifted up in prayer by millions of believers across America and across the world. You may have thought you were alone in that jail cell. You didn’t understand how crowded it was. And I’ll tell you Kim’s very simple response. She smiled, she pointed out, and she said: “To God be the glory.”

The fourth thing I intend to do on the first day in office is rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal. The single greatest national security threat facing America is the threat of a nuclear Iran. I got to tell you, I can’t wait to stand on a debate stage next to Hillary Clinton and to make very clear to the American people, if you vote for Hillary, you are voting for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. And if you vote for me, under no circumstance will a nation led by a theocratic Ayatollah who chants “Death to America” be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. And if the Ayatollah doesn’t understand that, we may have to help introduce him to his 72 virgins.

The fifth thing I intend to do the first day in office is begin the process of moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the once and eternal capital of Israel.

That’s day one. There are 365 days in a year, four years in a presidential term, and four years in a second term.

By the end of eight years, this ballroom is going to be a whole lot bigger. And by the end of eight years, there are going to be a whole lot of reporters and newspaper editors and journalists who’ve checked themselves into therapy.

In the days that follow, I will go to Congress and we will repeal every word of Obamacare. In the days that follow, I will instruct the federal Department of Education, which should be abolished I will instruct the federal Department of Education that Common Core ends today.

In the days that follow, we will rebuild our military. We will honor the commitments made to our soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines. And we will protect our servicemen and women’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms and defend themselves. That means the next time a jihadist walks into a recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he’s going to encounter the business end of firearms wielded by a dozen Marines.

In the days that follow, we will finally secure the borders and end sanctuary cities. We will stop the indefensible practice of releasing violent criminal illegal aliens and we will pass Kate’s Law.

In the days that follow, we will take on the EPA and the CFPB and the alphabet soup of government agencies that strangle small businesses. And we will unleash booming economic growth.

In the days that follow, I will go to Congress and we will pass fundamental tax reform. We will pass a simple flat tax where every American can fill out his or her taxes on a postcard. And when we do that, we should abolish the IRS.

Now, some of you all may be thinking all of that makes sense to me. It’s basic common sense. Live within your means. Don’t bankrupt our kids and grandkids. Follow the Constitution. But can we do it? Can it be done?

You know, Scripture tells us there’s nothing new under the sun. I think where we are today is very much like the late 1970s—same failed economic policies, same misery, stagnation and malaise, the same feckless and naïve foreign policy; in fact, the exact same countries—Russia and Iran—openly laughing at and mocking the president of the United States.

Now, why is it that that analogy gives me so much hope and optimism? Because we know how that story ended. All across this country, millions of men and women rose up and became the Reagan revolution. And it didn’t come from Washington. Washington despised Ronald Reagan. By the way, if you see a candidate who Washington embraces, run and hide.

It turned this country around. And I’m here to tell you the same thing is happening again. All over this country, millions of men and women are waking up. Do you know, since this campaign has started, out of 17 Republican candidates, do you know which campaign raised the most hard money? We did. To date, (we have) over 300,000 contributions. People all over the country (are) coming to TedCruz.org. Ted Cruz.org. TedCruz.org. The people are waking up.

And let me tell you what Washington wants. Washington wants us divided. Washington wants conservatives splintered. They want a chunk of evangelicals over here, a chunk of conservatives over here, a chunk of libertarians over here, a chunk of Tea Party folks over here. That’s how, if we are splintered, that a moderate establishment candidate runs up the middle with 23 percent of the vote, steals the nomination, and then loses to Hillary Clinton in the general election.

You know what? We’ve seen that movie before. I’m not interested in going to see Rocky 19.

We have a simple task before us. If conservatives unite, we win. So I’m here to ask each and every one of you, stand. Stand in your faith. Stand with your principles. Come together. How do we turn this country around? Just like in 1980. We rise up as we, the people. And we say we will defend this last, best hope for mankind, this shining city on a hill that is the United States of America.

Thank you and God bless you.