Ted Cruz is hitting a well-timed stride, topping several Republican polls in Iowa and basking in media attention about his popularity in the state where the first voting contest will be held, in the first week of February.
Now, with less than a month until the first votes of the 2016 race, Cruz is looking beyond Iowa to a state that might be a harder sell for him: New Hampshire.
The Texas Senator has not been to New Hampshire since November, but he is planning an all-out blitz of the state later this month, pegged to a Jan. 17 bus tour that will take him to every corner of the state. And his wife Heidi is being dispatched to the leadoff primary state later this week to drum up support in the meantime.It might seem implausible that the Iowa frontrunner -- a conservative firebrand with strong support among evangelicals -- is stepping up his efforts in the mostly secular, moderate-leaning state of New Hampshire, where establishment candidates like Chris Christie and Jeb Bush are planting their flags.
But a unique set of circumstances -- the splintering of establishment support during a time of populist fervor -- has paved the way for Cruz to possibly steal a higher than expected finish in New Hampshire, a prospect that seemed unthinkable at the outset of the campaign. And conservatives have been dropping in the polls and leaving the race, so Cruz is hoping there's an opening on the right for him.
"With the traditional conservative lane freed up by Rick Perry, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal dropping out, and Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee focusing on Iowa, Cruz could do very well in New Hampshire,
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