While I won't go to undue lengths here, allow me to rattle on a little further about ol' Huey.
He pulled that populist crap in Louisiana, of course, to get elected. But along the way he'd learned drawing room manners on the surface and could mix with the uppa crust comfortably. His speech in the right circles was elegant. Back home he'd talk to the crowds like one of them: "I'm gonna go to Washington and make them damned fat cats give back that grub they ain't got no business with!" Very quickly no one could hold ANY kind of job in the state w/o his tacit approval.
He was not only a fascist dictator by nature, he had great cunning. At that time the state had few paved roads, and when he first asked the legislature for highway funds, they allowed him only a pittance. So instead of paving one really long stretch as a showpiece, he peppered the entire state with short 1-mile paved stretches. That way everybody got the experience of pavement and then they'd hit back down on the dirty rutted roads again. Made 'em mad. So next time Huey went back for more funds, he got all he wanted (plus plenty to stuff in his pockets).
His skills would've been laudable if he'd used them for the benefit of mankind, but he was power mad, crooked as a dog's hind leg, and his cunning made him dangerous. His brother, whom I knew through my mom, also loved FDR even more since he thought someone from that camp might've had something to do with the assassination. His brother was absolutely terrified of him, telling me (confidentially at the time) "Remember, I grew up with him and I know what he was capable of."
No, anyone who knew Huey or much about him would never be fooled by Cruz. Say hi to your husband for me.