On this occasion, a state-by-state resolution doesn’t work as a result of conferences are by design nationwide. The State of Texas can’t regulate what schools in Oklahoma do, and Oklahoma can’t regulate what they’re doing in Alabama. The one solution to have a nationwide algorithm is on the federal degree. I’m an enormous believer in ideas of federalism — and Montesquieu and others describe them, that as a lot authorities as attainable needs to be native, and every little thing needs to be native, besides that which needs to be on the state degree, and as a lot authorities as attainable needs to be on the state degree, and what needs to be federal is barely that which needs to be at a nationwide degree. Right here, as a result of we’re coping with interstate competitors, interstate commerce and nationwide competitors that’s every year culminated in a nationwide championship, the one degree of presidency that has the authority to deal with these points is the federal authorities.
Coaston: My ultimate questions are about politics. You’re working for re-election this 12 months, for a 3rd time period. In your estimation, are Texas voters general trending in a extra conservative course, a extra progressive course or a extra centrist course?
Cruz: I feel a few of each. Texas is altering considerably. After I was first elected in 2012, there have been 26 million Texans. At the moment, there are greater than 30 million Texans. There are plenty of causes for that, however the No. 1 cause is Texas is the place the roles are. Persons are packing up and transferring from bright-blue states, from New York and California and Illinois, they usually’re transferring to pink states which have low taxes, which have low rules, which have an atmosphere that’s conducive to small companies and conducive to job creation. I feel Texas wants to guard what we now have. We have to preserve Texas Texas. However should you take a look at the in-migration to Texas, I break it into two teams.
No. 1, there are individuals which are in blue states they usually’re fed up. They’ll’t stand the excessive taxes, they’ll’t stand the rules, they’ll’t stand the woke insurance policies. They couldn’t stand the Covid lockdowns and shutdowns and faculties being closed down. They appear throughout the nation they usually say, “The place do I wish to be?” They usually choose Texas. The information present these of us coming to Texas are literally extra conservative than the median Texas vote. They present up in Texas they usually purchase a pickup truck and boots and a hat and a shotgun. I name them Refugees for Freedom. I need each one in every of them to maintain coming to Texas.
There’s a second group, which is: An organization strikes to Texas and it transfers its staff to Texas. And in that circumstance, the person staff didn’t decide “I wish to be in Texas.” A lot of them simply determined to stick with their job and switch. In my expertise, lots of these staff vote precisely like they did within the state they got here from. We’ve acquired an entire lot of individuals within the first class and an entire lot of individuals within the second class. I feel Texas is in flux, and that’s an argument that we’re having proper now in actual time.