Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad says he'd like to see surging GOP presidential contender Sen. Ted Cruz get crushed in the early-voting state – slamming his opposition to mandates for renewable fuels like corn-grown ethanol.
The governor charged the Texas lawmaker "could be very damaging" to the corn-producing state, and slammed Cruz's support from "Big Oil," the
Des Moines Register reports.
"Ted Cruz is ahead right now," Branstad said at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit Tuesday, the Register reports. "What we're trying to do is educate the people in the state of Iowa. He is the biggest opponent of renewable fuels."
The governor decried Cruz's 2013 bill to eliminate the Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandates that all gas sold in the United States include a certain percentage of biofuels like ethanol.
"He's heavily financed by Big Oil," he said. "So we think once Iowans realize that fact, they might find other things attractive but he could be very damaging to our state."
Asked by a reporter if he'd want to see Cruz defeated, Branstad said "yes."
"We should not support someone who is opposing those things that are critically important to the economic well-being of our state," Branstad declared.
According to the Register, while Cruz was campaigning recently in Iowa, one of the group's following the candidate was America's Renewable Future – run by the governor's son, Eric Branstad – which distributed pamphlets opposing Cruz.
Cruz has told Iowa voters he supports a phase-out of the renewable fuels standard over a five-year period, and doesn't think government should be "picking winners and losers in the energy sector," the Register reports.
The issue is one on which rival Donald Trump has taken the polar opposite position, declaring his support for ethanol and claiming Cruz was taking a "very anti-Iowa" position,
National Review reports.
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