Camp Cruz: Where squad goals are realized
A calendar in the hallway of Camp Cruz. (Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo News).
DES MOINES, Iowa — Nearly every morning around 7:45 a.m., Ted Cruz supporters squish into a tiny stairwell in an old Iowa college dormitory to bow their heads in prayer.
“Lord, I can’t imagine doing this without you,” 64-year-old Ken Brolin, the spritely white-haired onsite manager of Camp Cruz, said at the center of the huddle. It was the Thursday morning before the final Republican primary debate in Iowa, and Brolin stood surrounded by Heidi Cruz, many of her husband’s “strike force” volunteers, and homemade signs that read “#Intedgrity.” The smell of freshly brewed coffee crept in from down the hall. “Help this man. Help everybody see that he’s not only the hard-as-nails guy that will get things done and stand up to enemies, etc., but help everybody see what we see when we’ve met him.”
Brolin then focused his prayer on the supporters who had traveled to Des Moines from as many as 34 different states to caucus for the Texas senator.
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“We would just praise you and thank you, all the many volunteers that have met undecided voters and other voters, and even voters that didn’t like us,” he said, clutching his Venti macchiato (a weekly treat). “Lord, give us those special God appointments again today. And we will give you all the honor and praise in Jesus’s name. Amen.”
The crowd responded with a resounding “Amen.”
Cruz supporters participate in the camp’s daily morning prayer. (Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo News).
A hopeful morning prayer from Brolin is part of daily life at Camp Cruz — two former American Institute of Business college dorms that house an ever-changing stream of people filing into Des Moines to help caucus for the Texas senator. Officially, the nondescript buildings near the Des Moines airport are meant to function as a no-frills shelter for volunteers while they canvass door-to-door and make phone calls before the Monday night caucuses. But the dorms, which house about 50 volunteers a building, have also served as an incubator for new friendships, breeding a culture rooted in religious values, limited government and — quite often — anger.
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Since early December, these campaigners have quit their jobs and paused their lives, traveling from places like Montana, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts to go on these Cruz-inspired pilgrimages. Waiting for them in chilly Des Moines is drab, sparsely furnished dorms, decorated with Texas-steeped fan art that reads, “Our team has spurs on their snowshoes!” Many plan to follow the trail to New Hampshire and South Carolina, where similar living situations have already been set up.
One of two decommissioned dormitories at AIB College that the Cruz campaign has rented for the Iowa caucus.(Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo News).
Cruz’s campaign isn’t the first to cram out-of-state superfans into Iowa dorms for the sole purpose of spreading a candidate’s message. In 2004, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean did the same, distributing knit orange hats to brand his crew. Paul Porter, a volunteer from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., who secured the buildings for Cruz, got the idea for the barracks from the time he spent on Jimmy Carter’s campaign.
“They were called Peanut Pushers, and they all lived together,” Porter told Yahoo News. “I told [the Cruz campaign] about the dorm and said, ‘You guys are too young to know this.’ They said, ‘Why don’t you go get that done?’”
Cruz supporter Lisa Moore — also in the crowd that morning — drove 10 ½ hours from Little Elm, Texas, this week to lend a hand to Cruz’s campaign. She arrived Wednesday night to be assigned a bunk and a roommate. Though she’s not necessarily impressed with her accommodations, the self-proclaimed constitutionalist was delighted to discover how much she liked her fellow volunteers.
“I knew that I shared values with the other voters,” she told Yahoo News. “But I did not realize what a close-knit, warm environment it would be.”
Heidi Cruz poses with Camp Cruz residents as Ken Brolin snaps a photo. (Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo News).
That environment was on full display for a pack of cameras Thursday morning, as Heidi Cruz — clad in a white blouse, black trousers and a Jackie O.-inspired pink cardigan wrapped around her shoulders — trailed through the hallways of Camp Cruz, a boom mic bobbing above her head at every turn.
B.J. Parker, an elderly volunteer from Missouri who traveled to Des Moines with her daughter, Cheri Galvan, of Laguna Beach, Calif., was ecstatic to meet Heidi and express her love for Ted. The mother-daughter duo wore matching campaign pins: one that declared “Blue Lives Matter” and another that showed Hillary Clinton behind bars.
“We started following Ted when Glenn Beck had his program in Dallas,” Parker told Heidi. “I saw him for the first time, and I was just amazed by him.”
“I’m amazed by him,” Heidi replied with a suspended smile. “He is outstanding, he’s steady, he’s not stressed, he’s focused on issues, he’s unflappable. Doesn’t take attacks personally. When it gets really bad, he laughs.”
“We hope we get the D.C. cartel to listen because we are angry,” Galvan added, her voice calm and focused, her hands clutching a hat embroidered with eagle wings and the words “Cruz 2016.” “We’re not only angry — and I hate to use this word — but we’re pissed.”
“The only way that we stop this is to change how the system works,” Heidi affirmed.
A sign on the wall of Camp Cruz. (Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo News).
By 8:30 a.m. Heidi had slipped into a car headed to the call center in Urbandale, where most Camp Cruz residents spend their days speaking to voters on the phone. Its walls are covered with more motivational Ted-ganda, including a doorway framed by paper cutouts of corn and a sign encouraging volunteers to “Sign our growing field support for Ted.” Anyone who visits the office as a supporter is asked to add a pin to a small map in the corner of the room, indicating where they came from. Texas is by far the most pinned state.
After a quick recap of the day’s responsibilities from the office manager, Heidi took the floor again, offering tidbits from her experiences on the trail to motivate the crowd. Supporters, clad in Cruz jerseys and cowboy hats, nodded and clapped as she spoke of reclaiming the White House.
“It does say in Matthew 10:6 to be clever as a serpent and soft as a dove for God,” she said, as she concluded her speech. “So do both.”
Actually, the verse is Matthew 10:16.
