1) Trips 1, 2 and 3 to Iowa. Cruz has been in the Senate for less than a year, but he’s already made two trips to Iowa, with a third one scheduled in October. Lawmakers rarely wind up in Iowa by accident, and they certainly don’t wind up there on three separate occasions in less than 12 months. For the the conservative Cruz, the state known for fried butter and the first electoral event in the nation would be a key piece of his presidential primary puzzle. The state boasts a strong and involved evangelical base to whom Cruz appeals, and retail politicking is a key to success – a strength of the one-time Ivy League debate champion.

2) That other trip to New Hampshire. In between those trips to Iowa and, of course, to his home state of Texas, Cruz found time to make it up to New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state (Iowa holds a caucus, and both states are very particular about this language). In August, Cruz spoke at a fundraiser for the New Hampshire Republican State Committee. Cruz’s libertarian streak appeals to a “live free or die” mentality popular in the Granite State and, again, his skills at retail politicking would certainly come in handy in the small New England state.