Texas republican, and presidential candidate Ted Cruz, recently made a stop here in Georgia to meet with the media and voters in a chilly airport hangar on Friday night.

Initially planned for a 4:30 pm start, the event was delayed until 7:00 pm due the need he felt for being in Washington and cast his “No” vote that morning for the $1.5 trillion spending bill. The bill did pass in both the Senate (65-33) and in the House (316-113).

It was a chilly night in Georgia that night and even though the event was held inside a hangar, there wasn’t much relief from the cold as they had the doors open on either side and the wind was coming right on it.  The only thing for supporters to do was bunch up together in front of the stage and wait in an attempt to stay warm.  All in all, I would estimate the crowd to be in the 3000-4000 range, but I might be way off here on the estimate.  After attending a Donald Trump rally back in October in Norcross with over 10,000 in attendance, I expected to see a larger crowd on hand.  Perhaps the change in start time, the cold weather and the fact that it was the Friday before Christmas may have had an influence on the size of the crowd.

Mr. Cruz didn’t touch down until about 8:30 pm and you could feel the excitement growing in building as we all wanted to know how long it was going to be until things got going.  Once we started seeing people scurrying around, we knew it wouldn’t be long.  I had myself planted, for about 2 hours mind you, at the right side of the stage where they had an area taped off in hopes that Mr. Cruz would be coming out through those doors.

The event finally got started when Bob Barr walked up on stage letting us know, “He’s here.  Trust me, I’m from Washington.” Mr. Barr is a former US House representative from Georgia’s 7th district and is mostly noted for being one of the leaders who lead the fight to impeach President Bill Clinton.  He is also a proud member of the Libertarian Party and also of the NRA.  He then went on to let us know a little bit of history of this same exact airport hangar and who else has appeared here such as Pat Buchanan in 1994, and Charlton Heston.  He then introduced us to Jody Hice (US House Representative, Georgia’s 10th District), who was the only representative from Georgia  who also voted “No” earlier that day on the spending bill.

The crowd really got excited when former GOP Presidential candidate and local WSB Radio host (9:00 am-noon on AM 750, FM 95.5) Herman Cain finally got on stage with his famous. “Aww shucky ducky y’all.”  He went on, “I have to point out to people that I am not at liberty to endorse anyone, but I wouldn’t be here tonight if I did not like the candidate that you are here for tonight.  That’s not an endorsement, I’m just sayin’ what I’m sayin’.”  Mr. Cain also got a loud roar when he said, “We’ve got to stay informed, because stupid people are ruining America.”

Mr. Cain then introduced a Mr. Cruz by first rolling out a video from the Cruz campaign which included quotes from media people such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.  After walking thru the crowd shaking hands and signing autographs, Mr. Cruz finally made it up on stage.  He began with a little humor by commenting on the Democratic field and the dates and times of the debates.  “It’s really quite amazing, it seems like they’re scheduling the Democratic debates at 2 in the morning on a Saturday on Alaska PBS.  It’s almost as if they don’t want anyone to see their Democratic candidates for president.”

He went on laying out his 5 things he attends on doing upon his first day of office.  First on the agenda, “The first thing I intend to do on the first day in office, is rescind every single illegal and unconstitutional executive action.  President Obama likes to say he’s got a phone and he’s got a pen.  When you live by the pen, you die by the pen.  And my pen’s got an eraser.”

Mr. Cruz continued to speak for about 30 minutes hitting on issues such as wiping out ISIS, taking on the EPA and “the alphabet soup of federal agencies that have descended like locusts on small businesses killing jobs all across this country.” Next up was his introduction to the “Flat Tax” so that, “Every American can fill out his taxes on a post card. And when we do that, we should abolish the IRS.”, which got a huge ovation.

Before leaving the stage, he was presented with a birthday cake (his birthday is December 22) which was eventually passed out to all in attendance who lingered in the cold to get a piece.  He continued to head down to the floor for at least another 20-30 minutes before finally make his way through the crowd, shaking hands and signing autographs as he went.

If you’d like more information about Ted Cruz, you can go to the following site:

http://www.tedcruz.org

There you can learn more about his background, and his stances on Religious Liberty, the 2nd Amendment, his tax plan, and much more.

He also has an app on both Google Play and iOS, called Cruzcrew where you can sign up as a volunteer and get involved.  The app also has some fun trivia games in which you can earn points and level up.  There’s also information on upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and ways to help out by making phone calls or going door to door.

This stop in Atlanta is part of a 6 day, 10 city tour called the “Take Off with Ted Cruz Country Christmas Tour.”  He will be in Birmingham, AL on the 20th; Knoxville and Nashville, TN as well as Little Rock, AR on the 22nd; and both Tulsa and Oklahoma City, OK on the 23rd.