Ted Cruz: “It’s No Secret I Want to be President”

The Texas Tribune

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said “it’s no secret that I want to be president” on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s podcast Wednesday as chatter about the 2028 presidential field — and whether Cruz will run — intensifies.

Cruz, who finished second in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries to Donald Trump, has served as Texas’ junior senator since 2013. 

“I will say, this is a bug that history has proved is rarely ended,” Cruz said of his White House aspirations. “It is a permanent and often fatal bug.”

Patrick, noting that the GOP 2028 convention will take place in Houston, told Cruz that he “can’t imagine you not being on the stage” given Cruz’s love of politics and debating.

“Time will tell,” Cruz said when Patrick asked him directly if he planned to run again. 

Patrick ran through a shortlist of prospective candidates that included Cruz, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Gov. Greg Abbott — currently running for a record fourth term as Texas governor. 

“I think Greg Abbott wants to run,” Patrick said.

Abbott’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cruz is currently promoting a biography he penned about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, released Tuesday, and discussed the 2028 presidential field in an interview on MS NOW about the book.

When asked by MS NOW’s Ali Vitali if the party had coalesced behind Vance, Cruz was quick to disagree.

“Oh no,” he said. “There’s going to be a full discussion about who we are and what we believe.”

As for his participation in that discussion — and potentially in the presidential field — Cruz told Vitali, “There will be time to figure that out. I’ll certainly be part of the discussion, because I care deeply.”

This weekend, Cruz will head to Iowa to campaign with U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, who is running for U.S. Senate. It will be the Texan’s second appearance this year in the Hawkeye State — a decade after he won the Iowa Caucus. Cruz spoke to the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition in May.

Cruz won the Republican nominating contest in 11 states, including Texas, en route to his second-place finish in 2016. He ultimately suspended his campaign in early May of that year and endorsed Trump that September.

As the GOP considers what kind of platform it wants to adopt after a decade of Trump as its standard bearer, Cruz said he sees two axes in which the party must debate its identity — economic and foreign policy.

Those debates occasionally play out within the Trump administration — on tariffs, for example, where Cruz has staked out his position as supporting them as an economic tool to open up foreign markets rather than as a permanent policy feature. He has advocated for a hawkish approach to Iran and described himself as neither an interventionist nor an isolationist, and promoted traditional limited government principles on the economy — a potential presidential lane, should he choose to run.

“Economically, I think we should be a conservative party,” Cruz said on MS NOW. “And on foreign policy, we’ve got to debate: are we an isolationist party that withdraws from the world, or do we believe in American leadership? I care deeply about both of those issues, and who the party is.”

The Texas senator’s name also routinely comes up during Supreme Court vacancies — a role he has reiterated this week he does not want.

“I have zero interest in being on the Supreme Court,” Cruz told Vitali.