Three Years Out From Presidential Election, Could Ted Cruz Be Trump’s Successor?

Is Texas Sen.Ted Cruz considering throwing his hat into the presidential race again in 2028? The front page of today’s Washington Post seems to suggest so. 

The Post claims that anonymous conversations with “a person close to” Cruz and another who has been “briefed on his thinking” confirmed that the three-term Senator is eyeing the White House once President Donald Trump’s second administration comes to an end. Cruz first ran for president in 2016, where, among a crowded primary, he temporarily appeared to have a path to blocking the party’s Trump nomination. 

A friend of Cruz’s, Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization for America, told the Post that a conversation about Cruz’s political future gave the impression of a man “seriously” considering a bid for the presidency. Klein added that he’s been told by Cruz that the senator has been approached by multiple people urging him to run for the Republican Party’s nomination. 

Cruz “always has an eye on running,” said Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, who told The Washington Post that the senator’s rebuke of Trump in 2016, which he has since recanted, has left Cruz with ground to make up with conservatives. That could explain why Cruz has kicked his messaging into high gear this year, coming out as a staunch opponent of conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and a loud supporter of America’s relationship with Israel. 

Cruz has warned that Carlson’s isolationist stance on foreign policy is injecting the “poison” of antisemitism into the conservative party. This message comes at a time when the conservative right is grappling with its stance on antisemitism, an issue that seems divided by generational lines. In October, Carlson invited the avowed antisemitic white supremacist Nick Fuentes onto his podcast, where the men rejected the idea of the U.S. continuing its close allyship with Israel. 

And in sparring with Carlson, Cruz is setting himself up to face off against Vice President JD Vance, whom many believe will seek the party’s nomination for president. Vance is a close ally of Carlson and has touted the “America First” isolationist policy that Cruz dislikes. According to several people who spoke with The Washington Post anonymously, Cruz has criticized Vance’s foreign policy views privately with major Republican donors. 

Still, whether Cruz has the ability to mount a winning campaign is uncertain. While he has name recognition and funding, the elusive “it factor” of likability continues to elude him more than a decade into his political tenure. 

“There’ll be Ted Cruz, I’m sure, running against JD Vance [in 2028],” said Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in an interview with the Post. “All of us hate Ted Cruz.”