Sen. Ted Cruz has “no regrets” in a new Reagan-invoking campaign video sent to supporters that reassures the “movement” his campaign set in motion is “to be continued.”
“Ronald Reagan in 1976 came up short,” says Cruz. The Texas senator has often invoked the former president along the campaign trail. Reagan lost his bid for the Republican nomination in 1976, but went on to win the nomination and the presidency four years later.
“I suspect at that convention there were more than a few tears shed,” said Cruz in the video as he spoke of Reagan supporters at the 1976 Republican nominating convention.
Much speculation has been directed at whether Cruz is looking forward to a 2020 presidential run. But for now Cruz has reaffirmed the end of his 2016 presidential campaign and has filed papers to run for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2018.
“What we accomplished is frankly insane,” said Cruz earlier in his speech. “Nobody thought we had a prayer, but what we did collectively here is we sparked a fire and started a movement. And that’s powerful and it doesn’t go away with one election.”
Cruz went on to say, after speaking of the 1976 convention, “It’s going to be our task to go forward and continue fighting for that movement.”
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to be in this foxhole. Twenty, 30, 40 years from now, the people in this room, the people across this country, will say I was part of this.” A tearful Cruz admits to being sad about the result, but expresses, “I also know that collectively we did everything we could. We left everything on the field.”
The video ends with the image of three words, “TO BE CONTINUED.”
Cruz for President campaign manager Jeff Roe is shown in the opening of the video giving a wrap-up rallying speech in which he says that he believes the Cruz team lived up to the “honor”of working for “one of the greatest causes of our time.” He says, “I believe we, regret-free, lived up to that honor.”
Roe wrote in a Sunday evening email, “The future of our nation is about so much more than any single campaign. This is only just the beginning. The movement is growing — and will continue to grow until we restore that ‘Shining City Upon a Hill’ that is the United States of America.”
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