AUSTIN, Texas — Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum endorsed Ted Cruz on Thursday in Texas' crowded U.S. Senate race, saying the firebrand attorney and tea party favorite "has the wow factor." Cruz's opponents shot back that he is too beholden to out-of-state interests.
Cruz, the former state solicitor general, is thought to be trailing Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the Republican primary to replace retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Also seeking the party's nomination are ex-Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and Craig James, a former running back for Southern Methodist University and the New England Patriots and EPSN announcer. If no candidate wins a majority in Tuesday's primary, a runoff will be held July 31.
Santorum made the announcement on conservative Glenn Beck's radio show and then explained it on a Houston station.
"What we really need, and what we don't have, are people who strongly can communicate and passionately deliver the message on a variety of different fronts, not just on taxes and spending but on the culture and on national security," Santorum told KTRH.
Santorum's presidential bid had enjoyed strong support in Texas, but he abandoned it before the state's primary, which was originally set for Super Tuesday but delayed due to a legal battle over redistricting maps drawn by the Republican-dominated state Legislature.
Santorum said he probably wouldn't have time to campaign with Cruz but that he'd be "on the phone and doing whatever I can to influence the election from outside the state."
Appearing later at the Houston high school where he launched his football career, James responded, "This is Texas, not Pennsylvania."
"I continue to churn away," James said, alongside his high school football coach, Oscar Cripps, who he credited with teaching him to "keep on churning, the cream will rise to the top." Nearby were about two dozen supporters who had been carefully instructed where to stand before the event began.
Cruz is backed by several national tea party groups, including the anti-tax Club for Growth. It has pledged to spend $2 million to defeat Dewhurst, contending he has been too moderate during his nearly nine years as lieutenant governor. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin also has recorded a phone message on Cruz's behalf.
Dewhurst called the national interests influencing the Texas race "a campaign ploy."
"I just laugh it off," Dewhurst told The Associated Press in an interview. "Cruz, this is someone who is desperately trying to make things up to be relevant."
Dewhurst dismissed Cruz as just a former staffer for the Texas Attorney General's Office, saying "there's a big difference between having the luxury of sitting as a staffer ... and having to stand on the ground when, proverbially, gunfire is going on around you, and make decisions on a real-time basis to move this state forward."
Many have speculated that voting the day after Memorial Day will mean low statewide turnout. Speaking Thursday at an event in Lubbock, Dewhurst noted that only about 4,000 people in Abilene, which he visited earlier in the day, had cast early voting ballots compared with 28,000 in 2008. The two-week early voting period ends Friday.
"We're trying to remind people that there's an election out there and it is so important that everybody vote," he said.
Dewhurst has been endorsed by his own pair of unsuccessful Republican presidential candidates, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — both featured in television ads praising the lieutenant governor's conservative principles.
Dewhurst loaned his campaign nearly $1.2 million last week and has now spent more than $9 million out of his own pocket on the race, while Cruz recently gave his campaign $400,000 after only contributing $70,000 previously.
Asked about complaints he's spending too much of his own money, Dewhurst again chided the national groups backing Cruz.
"Mr. Cruz has had his new bosses spend $6 million on negative, untrue advertising against me and I have to defend myself," Dewhurst said. He also wouldn't rule out spending even more, joking "I'd have to ask my wife."
Leppert has donated about $3.6 million to his campaign but told the AP on Thursday that he has no plans to contribute more.
"You look at all the negative that goes on between Dewhurst and Cruz. Both of them call the other a liar, both of them tell lies about the other one," he said. "The charges are about as childish as you can come up with."
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Associated Press writers Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston and Betsy Blaney in Lubbock contributed to this report.