Ted Cruz 'Wows' The Crowd At OKGOP Luncheon

Senator Ted Cruz takes time to visit Donna and Steve Byas

  Sooner Politics asked our readers for an attendee's report of the OKGOP Luncheon with Special Guest, Senator Ted Cruz (an announced candidate for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination.).

  Donna Byas, (wife of Oklahoma Constitution publisher, Steve Byas), was kind enough to share her review of the event.

By Donna Byas
Oklahoma City, OK -   A great time. Most of us got our picture taken with him, too at no extra charge. What a great deal! Steve and I attended the round table discussion.
   Mark Thomas of Canadian County asked him if he thought he could keep his principles while serving in office (my version of the question). Cruz said yes, he could.

  Steve Byas asked Cruz about TPA/TPP. Cruz spent a good deal of time on this answer. He said he voted for TPA because every President had had TPA until Harry Reid killed it. Cruz said all this does is fast track any trade agreement. Cruz said TPP is still being worked out. They have yet to vote on TPP. Cruz said the big deal with TPP is that it is being kept secret. Cruz has read it and called for it to become public. He said any country can say which portions of the agreement they will and will not abide by. He said there is nothing in it that would cause us to lose our sovereignty. He said he has always been a free trade guy.

   Cruz came across as a very sincere guy, I thought. He shook many of our hands (including mine) as he came into the room. Then, when we went across the street to the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame--which was a great and handy place to hold it---Cruz went around to several tables and shook their hands, too. Cruz gave a great speech---he will fight for us, he went to DC and has told the truth and did what he said he would do, he things the US can be turned around and he thinks the GOP will win this time if we do not nominate in the same mold as John McCain and Mitt Romney;

"He's someone I could see sitting in the Oval Office" ~Donna Byas

  When he finished the speech, he got a very, very, very long standing ovation. It went on so long, that after he sat down, he stood up again to acklnowledge it and kind of put his hands in the shape to tell the crowd thanks but that's enough---It was a really long standing ovation. He is a great speaker and he does have charisma.
   He seems very sincere and the real deal. He did so well that I changed my Facebook picture to the picture Steve and I took with him today. I was kind of waffling--heading towards Walker, but Cruz just really made me a believer today. It's the 2nd time I have seen him speak---we went to see Cruz and Sarah Palin and Mike Lee speak for TW in Tulsa during the US Senate race--though we supported Randy Brogdon. Cruz is an excellent speaker. He's someone I could see sitting in the Oval Office, standing in front of the cameras before all of Congress and the US Senate making a State of the Union address, or sitting down eye ball to eye ball with Putin and drawing a line in the sand about some invasion or other nuclear war heads or something. He also is a friend of Israel. I think he said we need to make our enemies fear us and our friends know they have an ally. I think he would do that.
   Oh, and the food was very good. We also had cheesecake again, and Steve said it was very good---as I decided I ought to cut back somewhere. We had some sort of fancy chicken with vegetables---very good. It was well attended. Oh...and all the money went to the Oklahoma GOP which I thought was a stand up, generous, and great thing to do of Ted as he had to miss the Gala because of the NSA vote. So, the OKGOP has twice made money off Ted Cruz's name. He did show up onscreen from DC but being there in person is quite different. I really thought Cruz would have won the straw poll had he been there in person to speak and had Carson not bought 100 votes.
   I had another "Disneyland" kind of day. It is really neat to see Presidential hopefuls come through Oklahoma for a change. Chairman Randy Brogdon organized a really great event.  Cruz thinks he can get the 50 million or so Christian right voters who stayed at home last time to come out and vote for him; Cruz thinks we can turn the US around with Tax reform (he wants the flat tax), he wants to abolish the IRS, Bring back jobs we've lost over seas, and regulatory reforms--get Obama's zealots out of the business of regulation--they strangle small businesses, repeal every word of Obamacare and repeal Common Core--get back to local control of Education, Restore America's leadership was the 3rd plank.

  He is deeply optimistic. His Dad is his hero. Cruz and his wife are members at First Baptist Church of Houston.

Read all of Donna's report, here: https://goo.gl/aaholh

David Van Risseghem