Cruz Supporters In Tennessee Hope For Big Boost From Debate, Campaign Visit

For one evening, a darkened hotel bar in Cool Springs was the center of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s Tennessee campaign.

Among the dozen or so hard-core supporters gathered Tuesday night to watch the senator take part in the Republican debate was Aaron Snodderly, a 32-year-old state employee. He’s known Cruz since 2003, when he worked on one of the former attorney’s Supreme Court cases.

“It just always stood out to me that he was always so very well spoken. He always said what I felt was in my heart,” said Snodderly. “To contrast Donald Trump, he not only says what Americans want to hear. But he’s backed it up with his actions and his votes in Washington.”

Cruz will pay a visit to Tennessee next week as part of a multi-state swing. His supporters are betting the trip will give him the boost he needs to finally challenge businessman Donald Trump.

Cruz has come to Tennessee only once as a presidential contender, but his campaign has been lining up endorsements from evangelical and tea party leaders. Organizers hope it will give him the foundation he needs to win the state.

The Tennessee campaigning comes as Cruz appears to be surging in the early-voting state of Iowa, past long-time evangelical favorite Ben Carson. Carson, a physician who’s never held elected office, has been sinking in the national polls, amid reports of campaign in-fighting and questions about his inexperience.

For all that, the most recent Vanderbilt poll still shows Cruz running third in Tennessee, well behind both Carson and Trump. But Ed Smith, a retired consultant and restaurant owner, isn’t worried.

“I think the shift we see in other parts of the country will happen in Tennessee, because the same dynamics are in place. Ask me that question three weeks from now, and I think we’ll see different numbers,” he said.

Smith predicts Tennesseans will eventually tire of Trump, and that will open the door for a Republican as well-organized as Cruz.