Ted Cruz to meet with secretive conservative group in ClevelandCLEVELAND — Ted Cruz is making an extra trip to Cleveland to address a closed-door meeting of influential conservative leaders this Friday ahead of the Republican National Convention, according to four people familiar with his plans.
Cruz will speak to a gathering of the Council for National Policy, a secretive group of conservative activists, many of whom backed the Texas senator in his failed presidential bid earlier this year.
The CNP is a nonprofit, but some of its members, including President Tony Perkins, who also serves as head of the Family Research Council, are part of a subgroup that had voted to endorse Cruz in hopes of uniting the conservative movement behind a single candidate in 2016, rather than splintering as it had in 2008 and 2012.
Republicans instead nominated Donald Trump, who performed well among evangelical voters but has struggled to sell himself to evangelical leaders, citing “Two Corinthians” in one speech and saying he hopes not to have to ask God “for much forgiveness.”
Cruz’s address, which his spokeswoman Catherine Frazier confirmed, comes at a pivotal moment for the conservative movement, only days ahead of the Republican convention where Trump is expected to be nominated.
The closed-door speech also represents a chance for Cruz to stay in the good graces of conservative leaders who could power a 2020 presidential run. Cruz has already agreed to speak at the nationally televised convention, even though he has yet to endorse Trump....
...Cruz will arrive in Cleveland as the RNC’s Rules Committee is scheduled to meet. That is where anti-Trump delegates are hoping to make a last stand to change party rules to allow delegates to vote against Trump. Frazier said Cruz plans to appear only at the CNP gathering, not at the RNC meetings....
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