Ted Cruz is the Republican Party

By Taegan Goddard

Although many pundits describe Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as on the fringes of the Republican Party, a new Democracy Corps poll finds he's actually right in the ideological middle.
Tea Party and evangelical segments of the party make up over half of all Republicans, and these groups think very highly of Cruz. He scores an 81.8 positive rating among Tea Partiers and a 75.9 rating among Evangelicals.
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Among moderate Republicans, who make up just a quarter of the GOP, Cruz scores a 51.0 rating.
Among voters nationwide, Cruz gets just a 39.7 favorable rating.
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Cruz may be on the fringes of the national electorate when you include Democrats and independents in the calculation, but there's nothing fringe about him when it comes to registered Republican voters nationwide. He is the GOP base.