Mimi Schwartz questions Ted Cruz’s Texan identity and bona fides.

Aside from those ubiquitously noted black ostrich-skin cowboy boots, Mr. Cruz is about as traditional a Texas politician as Ralph Nader. Yes, Mr. Cruz gets credit for his colorful language, though his is more in the style of a Southern Baptist preacher than an acerbic West Texas wildcatter. And yes, he self-identifies as an outsider and an individualist.

Mr. Cruz did not grow up in the same state as L.B.J. or even Rick Perry, who stepped down in January after 14 years as governor. Their Texas was predominantly rural — poor, isolated, unique. The landscape and climate shaped not only their language and culture, but also their politics: L.B.J. saw Hill Country deprivation and wanted to alleviate it; Mr. Perry’s D.I.Y. worldview and his passion for economic prosperity (his own, especially) can be traced to his escape from Paint Creek. The anti-intellectualism of Midland shaped George W. Bush far more than his family compound in Kennebunkport, Me., did.

Mr. Cruz was born in 1970 in Calgary, Alberta, to an Irish- and Italian-American mom and a Cuban-exile dad. By the time the family got to Houston, Texas was nearing the end of its transition to an urban state. The population boom that attended the oil boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s turned a conservative Democratic Texas into an even more conservative Republican stronghold.

Mr. Cruz was raised in the churchy suburb of Katy, and attended the private Second Baptist in Houston for high school, a training ground for ambitious, religious and determinedly prosperous community leaders. He wasn’t deprived or isolated; he had TV and afterschool activities. He became a passionate follower of Milton Friedman, which isn’t exactly common in Texas high schools (compared with, say, football). A great many Texans were starting to shove their progeny toward the Ivy League by the ’80s, so no shame was affixed to Mr. Cruz’s schooling at Princeton and Harvard Law School.

If you want to spot a faux Texan, just look down.  Very likely they will be wearing some fancy cowboy boots that haven’t ever touched anything but carpet and pavement.