Your all-time favorite conservative celebrity or right-wing Hollywood nutjob is likely in the bag for Ted Cruz.
During the home stretch in Iowa (where the senator from Texas is running neck-and-neck with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump) the Cruz campaign has deployed some of its more heavyweight talent—along with a vaguely charming, brother-of-an-Oscar-winner D-lister.
“Historians will write about you,” conservative-radio superstar Glenn Beck told a crowd in Davenport on Sunday evening, singing Cruz’s praises.
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“The last thing that people need is a demagogue,” he told CNN backstage, throwing shade at Trump. (Beck is one of several talk-radio hosts—such as Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Rush Limbaugh—who have been part-time boosters for Cruz.)
Phil Robertson, the Duck Dynasty patriarch and famously homophobic and anti-premarital-sex duck man who previously cut an ad with Cruz, is also out campaigning for the senator in the Hawkeye State. When he wasn’t literally blowing his duck whistle and calling Trump “Donald Duck,” or talking about “evil,” “wicked,” and “sinful” gay marriage, Robertson was busy selling Cruz to an Iowa City audience.
“Ted Cruz loves God, he loves James Madison, he’s a strict constitutionalist,” Robertson said.
Even actor Clint Howard—brother of Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard (who is a Hillary Clinton supporter, FYI)—flew out to Iowa to phone-bank for Cruz.
“As a conservative, I don’t do a lot of talking with my fellow workers about politics,” Howard said. “[Show] business is—I don’t want to say ‘infested’ but I will—with a lot of liberal-minded people.”
Ron Howard’s brother is correct. Hollywood stars swing overwhelmingly in the direction of the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton’s got a hell of a lot of Hollywood cash powering her campaign, and Bernie Sanders has his impressively long roster of “Artists for Bernie,” which includes the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Will Ferrell, Sarah Silverman, and Adam McKay.
But when it comes to landing the support of conservative pop-culture notables, Ted Cruz is giving his rivals in the Republican field (even Donald Trump) a run for their money.
James Woods, the Oscar-nominated actor who has become one of Obama’s greatest trolls of the past seven years, endorsed Cruz last November after speaking on the phone with him for nearly an hour. Woods emphasized Cruz’s stances on immigration and foreign policy as the big reasons he was joining the #CruzCrew.
Legendary playwright David Mamet, who eight years ago triumphantly announced that he had quit being a “brain-dead liberal,” hung out with Sen. Cruz late last year at a Los Angeles fundraiser. Former Loveline and Man Show host Adam Carolla adores Cruz, declaring last year that “I love me some Ted Cruz.”
Here’s the anti-leftist comedian chatting with Cruz about taxes, big government, and “common sense” policy-making:
And R. Lee Ermey, famous for his role as the loud, vulgar, ass-kicking Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam film Full Metal Jacket, is on Team Cruz.
“You know what, I just watched Ted Cruz—I mean, what a tough act to follow,” Ermey said.
The 2016 race is far from over, and Trump has locked down a few of his own high-profile celebrity endorsers: Gary Busey, Kid Rock, to name a few. But for now, Cruz appears to be dominating the right-wing Hollywood posse—no matter how few potential allies there are to recruit in that pool.
