That Time Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz Visited The Field Of Dreams
Cruz visits the Iowa corn stalks made famous in the 1989 baseball film.
— -- Ted Cruz emerged from the Iowa corn stalks made famous in the movie "Field of Dreams" hoping they might generate some magic once again.
"Shoeless Joe has a message for the grassroots. If you build it, they will come," the presidential candidate said at the baseball field and tourist attraction in Dyersville, Iowa on Friday – offering his own take on a famous line from the 1989 film starring Kevin Costner.
ABC News asked Cruz where the baseball movie ranked on his own list of favorite films ("Princess Bride" is his all-time number one pick).
"Field of Dreams is terrific," Cruz told ABC News. "The principle if you build it, they will come, you know, any minute now, I'm expecting to see Shoeless Joe walk out from those corn fields."
Cruz attracted a modest crowd to the event. Some had come asking the senator to autograph a copy of his recently released memoir, "A Time for Truth," while others were tourists who came to see the famous field and ended up finding themselves in the presence of a presidential candidate.
Fred Gilbert came from nearby Dubuque to see Cruz after getting a message from his pastor about the campaign stop.
Gilbert said the number one thing he's looking for in a presidential candidate is "character."
"Not someone that is a character but someone that has character," Gilbert said.
Cruz has pledged to visit all 99 counties in Iowa, the state that traditionally holds the nation's first presidential caucuses. His stop at the Field of Dreams was just one of several the senator will make in the Hawkeye State this weekend, including a town hall at his headquarters in Brooklyn, Iowa later today and Saturday's Family Leadership Summit in Ames where he will appear along with nine of his rivals in the Republican presidential race.
"I'll be back," Cruz said. "We're going to be here a lot."