This year’s RedState Gathering gave us many great speakers and speeches, but perhaps none of them, with the possible exception of Rick Perry, were as eagerly awaited as Senator Ted Cruz. His speech is now available for viewing on Youtube:

Cruz has been a genuine friend to RedState over the years, and we have been blessed to have him at every one of our Gatherings. Even at the one Gathering where he wasn’t on the schedule, he still dropped by for a visit anyways. I remember being struck by his story at the first Gathering more than perhaps any other speaker that weekend, and I was so glad to see him elected Senator from the state of Texas in 2012. Unlike some endorsed by RedState, he has been everything we hoped for and so much more.

Anyways, this video gives us both his speech and the Q&A session that followed it. Note that he does the speech without using a Teleprompter, and I think the speech is all the more impressive because of that. He did have a little bit of an issue making it to the ballroom, so the first five and a half minutes or so are of Erick, by his own admission, buying time for Cruz to show up. I think Erick did a good job, but if you want to, you can skip past that.

So sit back and enjoy the next 44 minutes, and when you’re done, check out this short interview: