Cruz Control
One much-discussed 2024 Republican possibility has taken himself out of the running, Sen. Ted Cruz (TX).
The 2016 GOP runner-up to Trump will run for another Senate term next year, not president, he recently told supporters.
Cruz at times has seemed wistful about the 2016 campaign, even though he came up short against Trump, calling it “the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,” while adding he’d run again “in a heartbeat.”
But for the 2024 GOP nomination, Cruz hasn’t positioned himself as prominently as declared candidates like Haley, and a scrum of Republicans are taking a hard look at the race, including Scott of South Carolina, Gov. Ron DeSantis (FL), former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan,
ex-Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and Gov. Chris Sununu (NH).
Cruz in 2016, four years into his first Senate term, took a beating from GOP primary rival Trump. The wealthy businessman suggested, falsely, that the senator’s Cuban-born father was involved in the JFK assassination and made derogatory comments about the physical appearance of Cruz’s wife.
Initially reluctant to endorse Trump, Cruz came around. After Trump won the White House, Cruz became a political ally and vocal defender against Democratic attacks.
As for Cruz’s 2024 Senate reelection bid, while he’s not particularly endangered, he can’t take it for granted.
In 2018, then-Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke became a media sensation in his race against Cruz and came within 3 points of winning. Since then, Texas has moved somewhat more toward the center. Trump in 2020 won the state by less than 6 points, the narrowest margin for the GOP since 1996.
Texas, though, is still a red state. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in 2022 scored a double-digit reelection win, over O’Rourke, by that point a perennial candidate after a failed bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Some Democrats, though, are still eyeing a race against Cruz. Potential Democratic Senate contenders include former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, a onetime San Antonio mayor, and Rep. Colin Allred (D), who represents the northern Dallas 32nd Congressional District and is a former NFL linebacker who later became a lawyer. ★