Cruz says he would run for president 'in a heartbeat'

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) feels that his last time running for president was successful enough with a “second place” finish that he recently said that he is considering running in 2024.

While former President Donald Trump has hinted that he could return for a run at another term as president, Cruz told The Truth Gazette that he would run again “in a heartbeat,” according to Spectrum News 1. After battling a GOP field of 17 candidates in the run-up to the 2016 election and coming in second, Cruz said he feels confident about his chances at becoming the Republican nominee for president.

“There’s a reason, historically, that the runner-up is almost always the next nominee,” Cruz said, as reported by Spectrum News 1. “And that’s been true going back to Nixon, or Reagan, or McCain, or Romney that has played out repeatedly. You come in with just an enormous base of support.”

The junior senator from Texas ran for the Republican ticket in 2016 but lost to Trump, who won the nomination and became the 45th president of the United States. While Cruz said it was “the most fun” he had ever had, it was often a contentious race between Trump and Cruz as they battled with a spar of words over policies, as well as things as personal as each other’s wives. Trump nicknamed Cruz “Lyin’ Ted,” and he also used a photo of Cruz’s wife Heidi to belittle her. Cruz responded calling Trump “classless.”

Cruz ended up being a runner-up in the race, and while he did not offer his support to Trump initially, he eventually became a staunch supporter. Cruz said he feels his work in the 2016 race will serve him well in a future race.

According to Yahoo!, Cruz prides himself for being a roadblock for President Joe Biden’s nominees to government groups during his time on the Senate Judiciary Committee. This has been going for months, dating back as far as May, in a variety of ways. 

Most recently, he and Senate Democrats agreed on a deal that lifted more than 30 holds on the State and Treasury Department nominations in exchange for a January vote on sanctioning companies in a natural gas pipeline worth $11 billion that brings Russian gas to Germany.

On Twitter, Cruz called this a “major victory,” and he said that when the Senate reconvenes there will be a positive vote on sanctioning Putin’s pipeline known as NordStream2.

“If senators value national security and are willing to stand up to Putin, we should vote overwhelmingly to sanction NordStream2,” Cruz tweeted.