Could this Last-Minute Tactic Lose Iowa for Cruz?

Cruz Mailer Could Cost the Texas Senator the Iowa Caucuses

Early Saturday morning, word began spreading of a “mailer” sent by the Ted Cruz campaign to potential caucus-goers throughout Iowa. The literature, framed as if it were an official government document, warning the recipient of a “voting violation” s/he has perpetrated along with his/her neighbors. Alongside each individual’s voting rate, there is a letter grade to each person’s performance. The phony document has been verified by Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler to have been a product of the Cruz campaign.

On Saturday afternoon, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (a Republican) released a statement condemning the mailer, stating that it “misrepresents Iowa election law” and is a “false representation of an official act.”

This controversy is all in the aftermath of the final pre-Iowa Republican Debate, wherein Cruz was seen by most onlookers to have had his worst debate performance to date. Early on in the debate, the Texas Senator missed his mark when he attempted to make a joke suggesting that he would leave the stage if the moderators and the other candidates continued to attack him. At other points, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul effectively combined to attack Cruz’s stance on immigration, as well as his overall authenticity.

In another jab, Paul (in retrospect, somewhat ironically) excoriated Cruz’s failure to appear to vote for the Audit the Fed bill earlier this month. The criticism was after the FOX News moderators pointed out to Paul that Cruz had been attempting for months to court Ron Paul‘s supporters in early states.

Cruz has been neck-and-neck with front-runner Donald Trump in Iowa for several weeks, but more recently, he has seen his momentum stall. Although Cruz’s ground-game was considered to be a significant advantage in allowing him to overcome Trump and ultimately win the caucuses, this last-minute turn-of-events could dramatically change the way that Iowans vote.