New Hampshire: Ben Carson PAC staffers quit, head to Ted Cruz campaign
All of the paid staffers for Ben Carson’s super PAC in New Hampshire have quit their jobs in order to become volunteers for rival candidate Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, reports WMUR. Just ahead of another GOP debate and the Granite State’s primary next month, the news doesn’t bode well for the Carson campiagn.
Jerry Sickles, a spokesman for the group, added that the retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon spent little time campaigning in the Granite State, an issue which became frustrating to him and the other staffers as they tried to build support for their Republican pick in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
Ted Cruz photo/ 2015 Defending the American Dream Summitt Ohio photo by Gage Skidmore
He told the station: “We hold Dr. Carson in the highest regard. This is a man we revere, but we think it is important that our party nominate a conservative and get behind a single conservative who can win, and we strongly believe that candidate is Ted Cruz.”
WMUR-TV reported that the five staffers made the decision after deciding that the Texas Republican is the most viable candidate in the race to win both the GOP nomination and the presidency.
In deciding to switch to Cruz over another candidate, Sickles noted that the terrorist attacks on Paris and San Bernardino, California had a major impact on the staffers’ decision to go with the Texas senator.
“I believe Republicans are looking for a voice that is more emphatic and has dealt with issues of national security,” Sickles noted. “We believe that Ted Cruz is a conservative Republican in the mold of Ronald Reagan and understands Reagan’s three-legged stool of social conservatism, economic conservatism and strength on national security.”
He also told the station that the group had not been fired, but rather “decided as a staff that this was the thing we should do at this point.”
POLITICO reported that Sam Pimm, the former head of Carson’s national super PAC, has also joined Cruz’s campaign.
Cruz’s campaign senior advisor told the station: “We continue to work hard for every vote here in New Hampshire and we are encouraged that conservatives continue to coalesce behind Sen. Cruz here in the Granite State and around the country.”
Cruz is currently polling in third place in the Granite State, averaging 11.9% in recent polls according to The Huffington Post. Carson has fallen to ninth place with an average of 2.7%.
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