Ted Cruz: Obama's Legacy Will Be 'New Generation' of Conservative Leaders

Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) told an influential Republican audience in Ohio that President Barack Obama’s lasting legacy will be a new generation of Republican leaders. 

“We got clobbered the last time around, but we are continuing to see a new generation of leaders step forward,” Cruz said at a Cuyahoga County GOP dinner last Thursday. “In 1980, it took Jimmy Carter to give us Ronald Reagan. And I remain convinced the longest lasting legacy of Barack Obama is going to be a new generation of leaders of the Republican Party who stand for liberty.”

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cruz, whom liberals, the mainstream media, and establishment Republicans have attacked for being conservative instead of “courtly,” also emphasized that politicians who have gone to Washington to “get along” have been a big part of the problem. 

“For too long politicians from other parties have gone along to get along in Washington, and that’s what’s gotten us into this mess,” Cruz said. “That’s what’s gotten us a $16.5 trillion debt. It’s what has killed economic growth in this country.”

Cruz also said Republicans cannot write off the so-called “47%” and needed to make stronger arguments for an unadulterated brand of conservatism to minorities, young voters, and working class Americans. 

“You want to know what happened last election cycle? We didn’t win the argument for the American people,” Cruz said. “The Democrats’ story is the Republicans are the party of the rich, the Democrats are the party of everybody else. And if that’s the narrative people believe, we’ll never win another national election.”