The Women Who Love Ted Cruz

The Durango Hills Community center parking in Las Vegas, Nevada lot looked like a suburban mall on Christmas Eve. SUVs were barreling around sharp turns to snipe precious parking spots from lifted trucks. The urgency and excitement of the occasion gave the Durango parking lot the feel of a rock concert tailgate. Ted Cruz had come to town.

The most surprising element of the day—second only to opening act Glenn Beck waving a copy of Don Quixote around while trying to do a George Washington impression in what seemed to be a cockney accent—was the amount of female Cruz supporters in attendence. By an informal count of the roughly two hundred attendees there to see Cruz speak on caucus day, women appeared to outnumber the men. Indeed, during Beck's Q&A portion of the evening, a woman shot up her hand to announce that she and her husband were celebrating their wedding anniversary and for her present she had demanded to fly to see Glenn and Ted. She added, "I read somewhere that middle-aged women are the angriest Americans, and I'd just like to thank you for helping me deal."

Cruz took the stage to play his greatest hits: "defund Planned Parenthood," "repeal Obama care," "take 85 percent of federally controlled land away from the government," and the classic "uphold the Constitution." Women and men in the audience swooned. The litmus test for a true-blooded Cruz fan is their relationship to the Constitution: it needs to go deep. Cruz is an "as written" type of guy—meaning he believes, like the departed Antonin Scalia, that the 1787 version of the document is right as rain.

The only thing these women love as much as the Canadian senator from Texas is their "trampled" Constitution.

Pat likes Cruz because he is "pro-life and wants uphold the Constitution. He's the only one of these guys that we trust." She pleasantly ended our chat to get closer to Cruz, but before we parted she made sure I knew that our "country is on the brink of disaster," I asked why and she said something about "the Constitution." Then she wiggled back into the crowd.

Susan, a former government worker, says she was transformed from being a dyed-in-the-wool liberal to a conservative after witnessing years of "government corruption." Susan is supporting Cruz because, she says, "we are losing what has made us a great nation. We're losing respect for the law, for the Constitution, for the Bill of Rights. Young kids aren't even learning about American History." She cites a Bill O'Reilly man-on-the-street segment, which shows that average New Yorkers know fuck-all about, you guessed it, the Constitution. Susan also appreciates Cruz for his candor: "He tells the truth even though it's unpopular. The truth is very unpopular these days; it's very important to be politically correct. As long as you're politically correct, nothing else matters." The other thing that's important to Susan: "the Constitution."

Deborah and Jennifer B, a mother-daughter duo, were shy at first. I asked Deborah what's the one word she would use to describe Ted Cruz: "Truth." Jennifer told me that she isn't yet 18, but she wanted "to experience politics and learn about them, and take part in them."

Lynn didn't want to engage in a long conversation, but she told me she supports Ted Cruz because "he's a consistent conservative, and the Constitution needs defending."

Terri wants Cruz to hold "hold Planned Parenthood accountable, and let people keep their land,"— another unspoken, but obvious nod to Deadwood-character-come-to-life, Cliven Bundy. Terri's husband chimed in that he was supporting Cruz because of his promises "to uphold the Constitution."

Ali came to Nevada to support Ted and learn how to help him in other states. She wore a placard with her name on it, so initially I thought she was with his campaign. She isn't, as it turns out, but she wants to be. After several years as a teacher in New Mexico, she wants to be Ted Cruz's secretary of education. She wouldn't even let me ask her why before she revealed that she would only want the job so she could "get rid of the job." She doesn't believe in having a secretary of education.

Before we parted, she asked me if I heard her yelling during Ted's speech. She beamed with pride. "When he brought up Common Core, I was the one who shouted 'Common Core makes you stupid and poor!'" She only said the word "Constitution" once.