Chad’s Morning Brief: Ted Cruz the Sleeping Giant in the GOP Race and Abbott’s First Syrian Refugee Test Comes Friday

Is Ted Cruz the candidate to beat? The Chad Hasty Show airs 8:30-11am on 790AM KFYO.

The Sleeping Giant?

Chris Cillizza seems to be having the same feeling I am about Ted Cruz. Watch out, this guy is for real. As I said yesterday on the show, I expect Cruz to continue to rise and to reach second place by the end of December. Obviously this next debate will be very important for both Cruz and Rubio. As Cillizza points out in the Washington Post, Cruz's trend line is very impressive.

Among tea partyers, Cruz is tied with Donald Trump at 29 percent — well ahead of Carson at 17 percent and Rubio at 12. Among evangelicals, Cruz and Trump, again, are tied — this time at 24 percent — with Carson at 19 percent and Rubio at 13. Twenty nine percent of those who identify as "very" conservative choose Cruz, while Trump takes 25 percent, Carson 15 percent and Rubio 11 percent.

The Q poll also shows that Cruz has one very clear edge over Trump as the race moves forward: Almost no one said they wouldn't support him. Just six percent said they could never back Cruz — a number matched only by Rubio, at 5 percent. By contrast, more than one in four Republicans (26 percent) say they could never vote for Trump, the highest of any candidate in the contest. (Amazingly Jeb Bush, who gets just 5 percent of the vote in the primary ballot, is second on the "won't vote for" question, with 21 percent.)

Cruz is very well liked — bordering on beloved — among the most conservative and most passionate elements of the Republican base. Even among those who aren't for him, there is very little resistance to voting for him if it came to that.  He also is among the best funded candidates in the race — second only to Bush in terms of total dollars raised. And, unlike Bush, Cruz has a relatively equal balance between money collected for his campaign ($26.5 million) and for his universe of super PACs ($38 million).

As Ben Carson continues to collapse, Cruz will gain strength. Team Cruz is working this election well and has Cruz in excellent position to win the nomination.

Abbott's Test

Governor Greg Abbott has said that Texas will block Syrian refugees from being settled in Texas. According to the Houston Chronicle, Texas-bound Syrians will arrive on Friday.

A family on the run from Syria is preparing to board an airplane to the United States and is expected to land in Texas on Friday, setting up a first test for Gov. Greg Abbott's promise to block all refugees from the war-torn country.

The family -- a man named Tamman and his parents, wife and two young children -- currently are staying in Jordan and will board the airplane Thursday, with an expected arrival Friday in Dallas, according to Anne Marie Weiss-Armush, an aid worker assisting with the move. The tickets were purchased by the U.S. State Department, she added.

"It's kind of nerve-wrecking because it really is a test case," said Weiss-Armush, president of DFW International, a Dallas nonprofit that helps international residents. "It's like, is Gov. Abbott going to meet them at the airport and send them away?"

DFW International already has obtained two apartments for the family on the border of Dallas and the northern suburb of Richardson, Weiss-Armush said.

The refugee resettlement organization formally handling the move is the International Rescue Committee, which drew widespread media attention earlier this week when it was reported that officials had sent the group a letter threatening legal action if it resettled any Syrians in Texas.

Abbott, a Republican, is among more than 30 governors who have said they will block Syrian refugees due to security concerns inflamed by the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, which were carried out by terrorists with ties to the Syria-based Islamic State.

An Abbott spokesman said late Tuesday that the governor "has been very clear on this issue and fully expects all agencies to comply with his directive."

The International Rescue Committee has announced that it will not change its plans to resettle Syrian refugees, however.

In addition to Tamman's family, the group is working to resettle another family of Syrian refugees, spokeswoman Lucy Carrigan said Wednesday. That couple and their young children are expected in Texas next week, Carrigan said.

It has been reported that the Governor can't block refugees. So what will happen? I guess we will find out on Friday.