Ted Cruz, a senator from Texas, is well known by both his enemies and his supporters. He is widely known as a conservative stalwart. He’s been in politics for a good while, serving as a senator since 2013. Before that, he was Solicitor General of the State of Texas from 2003 to 2008. Cruz is loved by most conservatives for his willingness to consistently stand for conservative value and for refusing to cave to the establishment Republicans or Democrats. While he seems like an establishmentarian when compared to former President Donald Trump, Senator Cruz and President Trump had a great working relationship despite heavily quarreling during the 2016 Republican primaries.  

Because of his great track record, Cruz was invited to speak at the Young Conservatives of Texas state convention which occurred Friday April 23rd to Sunday April 25th. Cruz spoke as the plenary speaker on Friday night. Young Conservatives of Texas is a statewide organization that seeks to promote “Principles over Party.” As such, the organization is non-partisan but deeply committed to conservative values.

There are two main takeaways from Senator Cruz’s speech which apply to conservatives across the United States. First, Cruz stressed that there is a need to work hard. Second, conservatives have a reason to be optimistic.

As to the first point, Senator Cruz stated the fact of which most conservatives are very well aware: America currently has the most radically left presidential administration in history. The Biden-Harris administration wants to see abortion in every zip code, wants young children to be able to undergo sex reassignment surgery, and seeks to fan the flames of a pending race war with Critical Race Theory rhetoric and the 1619 Project. Conservatives have a lot of work to do to keep America afloat until the 2022 elections in which all representatives of the House will be up for reelection.

Cruz especially spoke out against efforts to end the filibuster. Why does the filibuster matter? It allows Republicans to prevent certain issues from coming to a vote. This includes the Statehood of Washington D.C. and the adding of additional Supreme Court justices. The survival of the filibuster is currently in the hands of a couple of Democratic senators who have stated opposition to ending it. The most prominent is Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Senator Manchin has expressly said that he will not vote to bypass the filibuster, which requires 60 affirmative votes.

However, Cruz claimed that those who are not falling in line with the majority of the Democratic Party are facing extreme pressure. In a highly polarized society, this is to be expected. True moderates and centrists are becoming increasingly rare as more and more issues fall entirely along party lines.

If the court is packed, the Supreme Court will become an overt participant in partisan politics, something it is not supposed to be. In fact, Sen. Cruz has previously said that the main reason he declined consideration for Supreme Court nomination was because he wanted to be in “the middle of the action.”

Despite the high stakes, Cruz reminded the Young Conservatives to not lose hope. The radical agenda of the Democratic trifecta is all but sure to shoot itself in the foot. When many Americans voted for Democrats, they did not vote for radicalism (even though they should have known better). Cruz pointed out that history bears witness that the House will swing Republican after a Democratic controlled government. Plus, conservatism has principled truth on its side – something leftism is drastically lacking.

While Cruz called upon conservatives to fight harder than ever, he balanced his call to work with a call for optimism. All is not lost. These two sides of the same coin will allow politically active conservatives to fully fight for American ideals.

Douglas Phillips is a native Texan, having been born and raised in the Lone Star State. He writes on political philosophy and current events.