Melendez: Cruz Overreacted Regarding Soft-Core Porn Actress

Asm. Melissa Melendez said Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz overreacted last week when he pulled an advertisement that unknowingly featured an actress who had been featured in multiple soft-core porn movies.

Although Amy Lindsay, the actress, has appeared in a long list of movies with erotic titles, she’s also a Christian conservative and Republican voter, and Cruz — a U.S. senator from Texas — shouldn’t be turning away supporters, said Melendez.

“Neither Ted Cruz, nor any other presidential candidate, can afford to go and only try and attract the purest supporters out there,” said the Lake Elsinore Republican, noting that Lindsay earns a living legally. “That’s not America. America is made up of everyone, from porn stars to doctors to grave diggers to truckers. As a candidate, you can’t go cherry picking your supporters or you’ll lose.”

Melendez said the Cruz campaign’s decision to pull the ad was “a little hasty.” She said voters judge and vet candidates on who they are, not who their supporters are. Melendez said she didn’t think what Lindsay did for a living “is any reflection on him.”

According to Buzzfeed, Lindsay — who grew up in Cruz’s hometown of Houston and has a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin — is still deciding between supporting Cruz or business magnate Donald Trump, but thought it would have been “cool” for an “open-minded woman” like her to appear in a Cruz campaign video.

Cruz’s campaign contends that Lindsay responded to an open casting call, but didn’t know of her experience at the time and pulled the ad once they became aware.

Melendez added that if Cruz is elected president in November, he will represent everyone in America, including soft-core porn actresses like Lindsay.

Melendez has not yet endorsed in the presidential campaign.