Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has reportedly begun sounding out potential staffers to work on his 2028 presidential campaign as the GOP starts squaring up to the prospect of a post-Donald Trump future.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Cruz, 55, “is already putting in the legwork in Iowa, hitting the podcast circuit and embarking on a book tour,” all omens foreshadowing a likely run.
It adds: “He is also quietly asking people if they would be interested in working on his 2028 bid, according to people familiar with the requests.”
The Independent has reached out to Cruz’s office for comment.
Vice President JD Vance is widely seen as the president’s natural successor, is well ahead in early polling and appears to have Trump’s backing, with the president reportedly telling Republican donors at a recent private dinner: “At the end of the day, we need to elect JD.”
open image in galleryThat came after months of Trump asking conservatives who they would prefer as their next nominee out of Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, pitting the two men against each other, with the latter politely indicating he would not run as a challenger to the VP.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth apparently has no such qualms and is said to be mulling his own bid for the White House, discussing it with friends and associates, according to NBC News.
The VP has yet to confirm his intention to run, focusing for now on the midterms, and could yet choose to opt out, given that his wife Usha Vance has just given birth to their fourth child and the likelihood of Democrats enjoying a bounce in the polls in reaction to Trump.
However, the Journal cites Vance allies who “dismissed and scoffed at” the prospect of Cruz providing the opposition to his potential candidacy, “arguing he wouldn’t be a serious threat.”
Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon was also dismissive of the senator, commenting: “He’s going to have plenty of money, but unfortunately he’s not a populist, he’s a throwback to the neocon and neoliberal policies of the old Republican Party that’s essentially been destroyed.”
open image in galleryCruz has not been afraid to attack Vance, saying on a recent podcast appearance that the VP’s memorandum of understanding with Iran, attempting to bring an end to the ongoing war, had been “a terrible deal.”
He also addressed the importance of gaining Trump’s endorsement, while preparing the ground for his not receiving it, by saying: “It carries weight, but I think the voters are going to make their own determination.”
Cruz rose to prominence during the Tea Party era and ran against Trump for the GOP nomination in 2016, a bad-tempered race in which the ultimate winner nicknamed him “Lyin’ Ted,” alleged that his father Rafael had been involved in the assassination of John F Kennedy and publicly insulted his wife Heidi.
The senator has since enjoyed a much friendlier relationship with the president, who promoted his new book on Truth Social this week, and even excused Trump’s insults a decade ago as “political genius.”
Perhaps a bigger obstacle for Cruz is his propensity for gaffes, which have been frequent and met with glee by online commentators.
open image in galleryThe senator’s official account notoriously liked a two-minute clip from an adult film that was posted on Twitter by “SexuallPosts” in September 2017, a blunder subsequently blamed on an unnamed staffer.
Cruz was also roasted for going on vacation to Cancun while his state was suffering a power and water crisis in February 2021, for spending more time on his podcast than legislating and for being unable to answer Tucker Carlson’s elementary questions about Iran while lobbying for greater U.S. military aggression against its theocratic regime.
Most recently, he has been laughed at for warning against billionaire presidents who “steal and rob from those they govern,” attacked for spreading misinformation wrongly linking the Covid-19 vaccine to miscarriages and forced to take down a tribute to the late Dolly Parton when the account he reposted changed its username to belittle him.