Politico: Ted Cruz Needs To Find a Wealthy Benefactor To Fund His Campaign

SHERMAN: “Ted Cruz is running for president. Now what’s going to happen?”
PALMER: “Well, I think the real question here is can Cruz raise the money. I don’t think anyone was surprised by this announcement — maybe how soon it came. But certainly in terms of being able to have a donor base at his national — and not just the grassroots, not just online, the small ten dollar, twenty dollar amounts — but, you know, are you going to be able to find somebody who’s going to say, ‘A bundle of hundred thousand dollars for you.’”
SHERMAN: “And where is his base? It is mostly in Texas right now, his fundraising base?”
PALMER: “It is, but it’s very interesting because, you know, a lot of people in the Texas political community that I’ve been talking to today and past couple of days have said that he really hasn’t been running before Texas, he’s been running for a national office forever. So the fact that he made his announcement not in the state just shows kind of the bitterness that a lot of those people have towards him. Plus, he is also going to have Rick Perry, Chris Christie’s going down there this week. A lot of people are also trying to tap into the Texas wealth.”
SHERMAN: “One of the things that he will have success with is the strong pro-Israel, Jewish and Christian community who have that as one of their top issues. He’s considered by them very strong and a champion on those issues. So that’s one place he’s going to be able to get the money from, I think, going forward.”
PALMER: “Absolutely.
SHERMAN: “The question is will Cruz have somebody like Sheldon Adelson or Foster Friess who’s willing to dump tens of millions of dollars perhaps into a super PAC to help his — you know, spur his campaign alone.”
PALMER: “Absolutely. I mean that is the real question. He doesn’t have a benefactor but neither did Rick Santorum with Foster Friess until after the Iowa caucuses, where he kind of started to get momentum. So you could see some of these donors who maybe — he can generate some excitement around, would pour in a lot of money if he starts to have a more viable turn.”