Ted Cruz's Presidential Campaign: Strategy, Goals, and Political Communication.

An effective modern political campaign entails a variety of different goals and organizational skills. Social media and technology are important. However, knocking on doors, phone banking, and communicating with voters one on one is extremely important as well. The presidential campaign must also work well with the press because they will be the ones who will present information to voters locally as well as nationally.

Republican presidential candidate Texas Senator Ted Cruz has a broad coalition of people who are supporting him that are evangelical Christians. This base is pertinent for the survival of his campaign. In Iowa, Sen. Cruz has recently surged in the polls and he is neck and neck with GOP front-runner Donald Trump. The evangelical base sees Cruz as a positive force who will advocate for religious liberty, specifically Christianity.

Trump and Cruz have been in a political battle for Iowa and Trump has attacked Cruz on his eligibility to run for president because Cruz was born in Canada and his father was born in Cuba.

In a recent Republican presidential debate, Trump and Cruz have sparred on a number of issues. Cruz called out New York for not having good values because of their broad support of gay marriage and abortion. Trump responded to this by saying that September 11th was a difficult time for New Yorkers and they came together as a community.

Trump is trying to take the support of Iowa's evangelical base from Cruz, but he is not seen as a religious person. Ted Cruz has a national prayer team on his campaign and focuses specifically on what he sees as the persecution of Christians. He has publicly spoke out in support of Kim Davis, a county clerk who denied a marriage license to a couple because they are gay. Cruz also has a lot of credentials with the American evangelical community. Recently, Trump attended Liberty University, where he made a speech to appeal to conservative evangelicals. However, it may have backfired when he attempted to cite Bible verses during the speech, but he misquoted parts and mispronounced names.

In a Cruz political ad, he touted the fact that Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson endorsed him for president. These endorsements from conservative stars like Robertson and Sarah Palin are crucial to rally up his base.

Cruz has also attacked the media at debates, which make him popular among Republicans. His presentation as a conservative Christian who is an anti-establishment outsider has given him good favorability ratings among Republicans, but not the general population. Now that the race has heated up because former Governor Sarah Palin has endorsed Donald Trump instead of Ted Cruz, it is difficult to say who will win Iowa. In 2008, Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses and he did not go on to win the Republican nomination.