This post has been in the works since February of this year. After Ted Cruz dropped out of the presidential race on May 5th, my family asked me if I was just going to delete the draft and forget about publishing it.
My answer? "Absolutely not!"
Here's why. Being involved, in a little way, in one of the greatest campaigns in history was an experience I wouldn't trade for the world. Even though it didn't end the way we would've hoped,
I still wanted to document and share our experiences and what we learned from the Cruz Campaign, and why we choose to be involved in the first place.
It wasn't because it was glamorous or prestigious. It wasn't.
It wasn't because we had lots of extra time to dump into a new cause. We didn't.
It wasn't because we were wanting more publicity or media attention. Not at all.
It wasn't because we needed more hate mail or nasty online comments or twisted statements or ridiculous articles written about us. We already had that.
It wasn't because we felt like dealing with a whole new level of criticism and hate and rudeness.
No. Goodness, NO.
It was because it was a GODLY cause, for a GODLY man, and we wanted to be a part of it.
You may not know this (the media definitely didn't tell you) but the Iowa caucus was won by Cruz because a handful of Iowa pastors, who loved Jesus and their country, got on their knees and PRAYED AND FASTED. And then they went to work. They engaged their congregations and their communities. Friends told friends. Common, ordinary, everyday people used their little platforms of influence in every and any way they could think of. Moms made phone calls while their little children napped. Young people knocked on thousands of doors. Older people came and lived at the Cruz Crew campus and made thousands of phone calls. Whole families got involved. Bumper stickers went on vehicles everywhere.
Many people thought our family was completely overboard- devoting way too much time and energy to politics- but God clearly put this this mission on our hearts last April, both individually and as a family, and we chose to pursue it, along with our first and greatest mission of spreading the gospel and encouraging God's people. For us, the campaigning went along with the other two, and we viewed it as not only a work for our country, but also a work for the Lord. This wasn't about something we were doing. This was about working for Jesus and a godly cause, to make a difference for future generations, for the sake of our country. No, we didn't know for sure that Senator Cruz would win or lose, at that point.
But that wasn't the main point. The main point was following the CALL Jesus gave us.
I thought y'all might be interested in hearing from the whole family, individually. So I asked each of them to write a paragraph about their experience working for the campaign. Here are their thoughts. Enjoy the variety. =)
MARLIN: "One thing my eyes were opened to when campaigning was how much the public believes everything they hear through the media. Many people don't think for themselves anymore. They believe solely what they see and hear through TV, radio, and internet. In realizing this, I have learned to be more thorough in examining facts about something or someone before I believe what I may have heard about them. I was deeply grieved by the way Christians sought to find fault with Senator Cruz (complaining about things such as his church denomination or theology beliefs) but blatantly refused to acknowledge the infinitely more important issues with Trump, such as literally every aspect of his very questionable personal life. It was very sad to realize how deceived and confused Christians have become."
BECKY: "It was a privilege to work for the Cruz campaign. To know that there are still a few godly people in our country's government was SO encouraging. Can you believe that in our politically correct country, there are even still political events that begin with prayer?Yes, every day at the campaign headquarters began with all the leadership and volunteers meeting together in prayer to our Almighty God. I was also blessed to meet individuals (both volunteers and people we met while door knocking) who still understand the need for men in our government who will stand for truth and righteousness. My heart is still grieving that the American people don't understand the need for godly leaders, but my hope is in the Lord. 'Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.' Isaiah 12:2"
CHELSY: "Campaigning was a sober wake-up call to how low my country has fallen. The worst conversations I had with people; the people that acted and talked in the most ungodly way; the people who were the most lacking in common judgement and sense...were not, as you would think, the liberal left (although they were too!) but the professing Christians. You would have thought that it would be these Christians who would have rallied around the candidate who, without a shadow of a doubt, shared the most of their professed values, but no. These were the people who chose to defend and vote for a man whose personal and public life went DELIBERATELY against everything that Christianity stands for. It was absolutely heart wrenching to see it all play out in front of me as I talked with people. However, the campaign had very encouraging moments as well. One of my favorite conversations was one that Taylor and I had with a gentleman in his mid-fifties. The poor man had quite the family history and life story which he proceeded to lay out to us over the course of nearly half an hour. We listened and sympathized; yes, we were there to talk about Cruz, but he obviously just needed someone to talk to PERIOD and so we did..inserting Cruz information and facts whenever the timing was right. =) Finally at the end of our conversation, after telling him at various times throughout the thirty minutes why he should vote for Cruz over Rubio (his favorite), I asked him if we could count on his vote. He looked at both of us with a smile and said, "Well, I guess if two young people can come all the way from Iowa to Georgia and spend this time talking with me because you are that passionate about this man Cruz...well then you can count on my vote too." That made my day and also made me realize that in the end, listening to someone and showing them you care is what matters the most."
MITCHELL: "If I were to give a piece of advice to someone about to go door-knocking (for anything, not just a political campaign), it would be this- have a bulldog mentality. In other words, don't get discouraged just because someone rejected you- keep on going. Campaigning is EXTREMELY draining; not just physically, but also emotionally. So remember why you are doing what you are doing, and draw strength from encouraging people, rather than allowing the discouraging people to get you down. Ultimately, if you are doing it for the Lord (i.e. soul-winning, campaigning for a conservative candidate, etc), draw your strength from the Lord! 'For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.' Proverbs 24:16"
ALLISON: "Working on the Cruz campaign was a wonderful, growing experience. I think the biggest thing I learned through this time is to have grace for people who have different views + opinions. Not everyone is going to see things, politically and otherwise, the way I do, and that is okay. There is a difference between shoving politics down someone's throat and presenting the truth in love. Jesus was all about sharing the truth in love, and that is how I want to be in politics and every area of my life."
CARSON: "It was a blessing to spend time campaigning for the sake of our country. I am so grateful to our forefathers who fought and died for our freedom, and I felt like the least I could do was to knock on doors and do my best to further conservative, Christian principles in America."
JOSH: "On the campaign trail we met all sorts of people. There were some who were very supportive and Christ-like, and others...who tested the limits of our patience. =) However, there is one experience, the most memorable of my door-knocking ventures, that I will never forget. One particularly chilly morning in South Carolina, Liz an I were door-knocking partners. At one of the very first doors we were met with a most unwelcoming reception. Feeling somewhat dejected, we continued to the next door, where a dear lady, probably in her late-thirties, opened the door and welcomed us in. We soon learned that she was a Cruz supporter and a homeschooling mother. This lady also happened to have a sweet daughter around Liz's age, and naturally, Liz and her daughter hit if off instantly. We chatted for a bit about life and the campaign. Before we left, however, the dear lady insisted on us taking two cups of hot chocolate with us. (to which we gladly obliged!!) I will never forget her hospitality. It was moments such a these that energized me to continue stumping the campaign trail."
DENVER: "Because I enjoy confrontation, campaigning was a mostly fun experience for me. My favorite part was learning about people's responses to a stranger knocking on their door. Some were quite friendly, others less so. One thing that I found out is that ladies and young people are usually friendly but older men are normally not as much. There were definitely differences in people from the north and those from the south. While the people from Iowa were almost always civil, they were rarely friendly. Those from the South were either quite friendly or just slammed the door in my face. I also enjoyed campaigning because although I am already a people-person, it helped me to be even more comfortable with strangers. All in all it was a great experience that taught me many lessons that I will use later in life."
TAYLOR: "Working with the Cruz campaign was very rewarding. Although the end result was not what I worked and prayed for, I do not regret what I did. Looking back, I know I did my part. Naturally I do not like rejection (something I experienced many times on the trail), but as my brother Mitch would say "they are not rejecting you. They are rejecting what you are fighting for." It is also encouraging when sharing the Gospel to know that unsaved people are not rejecting me. They are rejecting Jesus. From this campaign, I learned many things that will benefit me for years to come. #1 Our country is in worse shape than I thought. #2 There are more opportunities to fight for truth than ever before. So, reader, never lose heart. Truth is always worth fighting for and will always prevail. John 14:6. Jesus is the truth!"
LIZ: "I really enjoyed being able to campaign for Cruz. It was fun to be able to be with siblings and friends. Sometimes people were a little rude but there were also really nice people and...once in a blue moon there would be people who would invite you into their house and give you hot chocolate on a cold and windy day.[but that only happened once!:}]
It was a very fun experience and I would do it all over again!
HUDSON: "My favorite time with the campaign was the time I got to knock doors with just my eleven year old friend and me. That was fun. I liked that sometimes we volunteers got to eat Chick-Fil-A; that was cool!! Also I learned that everyone in the south has at least one dog, if not MANY dogs, and that husbands and wives were often divided on the issue of who to vote for, and that was interesting."
REBECCA:"I liked campaigning. I mostly got to go on Carson's team and we had a lot of fun together. People were usually nice to us. One time we knocked on a door and the lady who answered started talking and talking. She said, "I went swimming today...." and she was telling us all sorts of things. And I was thinking, 'Lady, we aren't here to talk about what you did today'!"
(Note: literally that statement was in her own words, when I asked her to tell me about her campaigning. And also...people were always civil if not sweet to whoever she was with. The cutie factor was definitely a part of that. =))
One of the huge perks of working with such an amazing campaign was meeting all the incredible people volunteering with the campaign. In South Carolina we met "Joe". (pictured above with us outside of the Cruz Quarters) He asked his boss to give him some time off work so that he could volunteer with the Cruz campaign for a few weeks. His boss said no. So "Joe" just quit his job altogether and came anyway, moving from Ohio to South Carolina to be a part of the campaign.
His was not an isolated story. Many gave up time, energy, and resources to be a part of this grassroots movement.
We met all sorts of people and saw all sorts of sights. We took pictures while out campaigning in our various teams and sent them on our text loop to keep a good sense of humor going. =)
The Second Amendment movement was definitely alive and well in the south!
Now, if we could only have gotten those southerners to UTILIZE that common sense and vote for the only candidate who TRULY CARED about the second amendment.
Amazing sometimes, how people can be so wise and so NOT WISE at the same time! =|
When friends we campaigned with in Iowa also come south to work on the campaign...we got to campaign together again!
Allison, Josh, and Denver working the phone banks!
Many churches unknowingly hosted debate night watch parties for our family. (haha!)
We really really REALLY wished that Fox and CNN and all of those people would've checked with us before setting the debate schedule, because we would have requested that they debates please be on our very few off nights? =)
Instead, there we were in the middle of a concert, trying to stay focused but picturing in our minds the current state of things at the debate. Concerts went something like this:
Sing first song.
Sit down and silently pray for Cruz while dad introduces next song.
Think about what might be currently happening in the debate.
Back to real life---hop up to do the next song.
Sing several songs.
Think about the debate WHILE SINGING. =/
Finally finish concert. Push people out the door Be friendly and talk to people.
RUN to computers when everyone has finally gone and proceed to crowd around laptops to watch whatever portion of the debate is left. (and then later go back and watch the part we missed)
Hudson's expression. =) Listening to his and Rebecca's views on the whole political scene was most enlightening. They are so immersed in the "adult world" of our family and they just loved everything we did with the campaign.
"Guysss! There's a political update! Everyone crowd around to hear!" (typical sight)
Moments when we were so "in the mood" that we sent messages like the above. =)
Chick-Fil-A was the central location of choice for the campaign groups. Above, a few from our family and a a random group of volunteers enjoy lunch together in the midst of a campaign day.
Strategizing + planning before heading out early one morning in Georgia.
Obviously we just had our bus, so we either borrowed or rented cars from various people.
This day in Georgia, we rented three cars, and they were pretty classy rides. =)
The Cruz campaign did a phenomenal job of utilizing the latest technology for campaigning. We all had the "Walk 360" app on our phones. All we had to do, from state to state, was to login with our personal usernames + passwords, and then select what state/town/area we wanted to work in. We would each pick a different "walk book" (see above) or sometimes when the walk books were bigger and we didn't have as much time we would do several people/groups to a walk book. If a walk book had, say, 45 spots/circles, that represented 45 different households. For example, I would click on #1 and another tab would open up with the house number, and also name/s and approx ages of the registered republican voters within that home. So I would go up to the house and knock and ask for the person named. If they weren't home I would give my "pitch" to whoever answered the door. We all had our own personal methods of how we like to start our conversations, but usually we would begin with asking if the person knew who they were planning to vote for, and go from there. At the end of the visit we would check the boxes (on the same tab on the app for that household) for several questions, such as
1) voting for Cruz
2) undecided
3) persuaded for Cruz
4) not home/left literature
We kept refreshing our apps as we went along, which would make it then show up on everyone else's phones which houses were being done, as we all went along, so that no house got hit twice.
It was a marvelous system and made the whole experience go like clockwork, as far as those details were concerned.
Our group text chats were everything from sobering to nail-bitting to hilarious. Sometimes we texted to vent and sometimes it was for comic relief and sometimes it was to arrange a place to meet up. We texted on our group campaign chats to keep track of each other when we were out campaigning but the longer texts were in recaps afterwards and at other times. They were always entertaining and informative!
I found that the above emoji (steam coming from mouth) was my most accurate description of my feelings after talking to the average southern Baptist older white male. This man (honestly can't even call him a gentleman) made me almost lose faith in mankind in general. I felt like speaking with him greatly tested my Christian testimony. By God's grace I didn't totally lose my temper but seriously...
After we had gone round and round for ???? long, I finally just laid it all out in front of him. Trump's personal failures, his immoral wife, his heavy involvement in the pornography and strip club industries...the whole shebang. When I had finally finished the man looked down and said something to the effect of, "well, that may be true but...he still is the man we need for president because he is such a good businessman." At that point I was so done. After everything I had said, that he KNEW WAS TRUE, this professing Christian and conservative still held to the fact that money was, after all, the most important thing. I was so sobered as I walked away from that house with my younger sister, realizing that the conversation I had just had was a very accurate representation of the majority of the churches and "Christians" of the south.
Here is a segment from yet another group text, said by a fellow Iowa campaigner after the very discouraging Trump wins in the south: "Well, take solace in the fact that we reside in one of three still sane states in the nation. There's my uplifting thought for the evening." (this text was sent out right after one of the particularly discouraging voting days; I think it was right after we had campaigned in SC and then SC voted for Trump)
Brother love!
We met some amazing heroes of the political world. This family (pictured with us above, at dinner after a full day of campaigning in Georgia) were incredible examples of a family that campaigned at a whole new level. They inspired us with their knowledge and hard work. It was an honor to work with them.
You wouldn't believe it, but those five little girls (at the end of the table) sat and talked Cruz all during dinner. That's what the campaign can do to you---even your kids are all fired up and politics is their topic of choice. =)
Campaigning in Georgia.
Dad pretty much won "best phone caller for Cruz" award. Seriously he was KILLER. Actually he was great convincing anybody, via phone or in person, to vote for Cruz. I remember one instance in Alabama where I found out about a friend of a friend who was planning to vote for Trump. I got his phone number and gave it to my dad and said "will you please call him and get him on the Cruz team?" It took my dad 45 minutes but in the end he was able to convince him.
The thing that just stood out to me with the Cruz Campaign, over and over again, was the incredible unity among the most random group of individuals. People who were wealthy; people who were poor. People who were young; people who were old. Nearly all of them working on a completely volunteer basis. Even those who were paid staff (and those were very few) worked hours far beyond their salary. They didn't do this because they were forced, or even asked. They did it of their own accord, because they had a PASSION for this cause.
This man we campaigned for, Senator Ted Cruz, spoke last evening at the National Republican Convention. Take a few minutes to watch the video (above) of Senator Cruz's speech. It should just take this video to make you see why our family and thousands upon thousands of others were so passionate about getting this godly man in the White House. He continues to stand strong, for truth and righteousness, even since dropping out of the race. He is one of the only ones left who refuses to give his endorsement to a candidate who is utterly unworthy of the position of president. Congressmen, Senators, pastors...people left and right are bending their knee to the "golden calf", if you will, and giving their support over to Donald Trump. I am not only proud to have been a part of Senator Cruz's campaign, but I am proud of how he has honored God and his country in his life since his campaign ended.
If you listen to the news, you will hear that during his speech, Ted Cruz acted like a poor loser, that his speech was a joke, and that he is a complete idiot. I saw comments like this and much worse on the Fox News feed last night, and was completely disgusted at the lack of common sense being displayed by the people who were discussing his speech. You would think that any American with any common sense of decency would have instead been discussing the outrage of the fact that security had to escort Heidi Cruz out of the room during her husband's speech, due to the yelling and mobbing of her by the Trump crowd. But no. Most people took no time to do their research on the disgraceful conduct of Trump's supporters at the convention, and even if they had, the media would never tell them about this. (we know about it because we had friends who were there at the convention)
I found the following quote recently and it just seems to fit so well as a closing for this post, to remember that no matter what Jesus calls us to do, He WILL GIVE US the strength and the faith to follow His call.
"In Christ we find...
strength for the struggle, and faith for the fight."
-unknown
{written by Chelsy}