Sen. Ted Cruz says he is considering running for president in 2024 and suggests history is on his side following his second place finish for the 2016 GOP nomination.
That potentially could put him on a crash course with former President Donald Trump, who defeated Mr. Cruz in the last nomination fight and has been playing up the idea of making a political comeback.
Asked whether he would consider another bid, Mr. Cruz said in an interview with TheTruthGazette.com, “Absolutely, in a heartbeat.”
“I ran in 2016, it was the most fun I ever had in my life,” the 51-year-old Texas Republican said before suggesting his strong finish gives him a leg up on his potential rivals.
“There’s a reason historically that the runner-up is almost always the next nominee, and that’s been true going back to [Richard] Nixon, or [Ronald] Reagan or [John] McCain or [Mitt] Romney that has played out repeatedly,” Mr. Cruz said, citing the $92 million he raised for his campaign. “You come in with just an enormous base of support.”
In 2016, Mr. Cruz won 11 primary contests, including the Iowa caucuses after drawing strong support from the state’s evangelical Christian community.
The nomination race, at times, became nasty between Mr. Cruz and Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump made fun of Mr. Cruz’s wife and suggested that Mr. Cruz’s father may have been involved in the 1963 Kennedy assassination.
Mr. Cruz pushed back, calling Mr. Trump a “pathological liar,” “utterly amoral” and a “serial philanderer.”
Mr. Cruz was showered with boos at the Republican National Convention after he refused to endorse Mr. Trump in his address to the party faithful.
However, Mr. Cruz evolved into a vocal Trump ally on Capitol Hill and celebrated his policies, including his push to cut taxes and regulations and to appoint conservatives to the Supreme Court.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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