Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who lost the Republican presidential nomination to Donald Trump, said that he would actually be voting for and supporting a man he concluded was “utterly amoral” four months before.
In a Facebook post, Cruz explained that due to his concerns with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s potential impact on the Supreme Court and other major policy areas, he would keep his promise he made last year to support the Republican nominee. “After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump,” he said in the post.
This was a huge reversal from two months ago during the Republican National Convention—although the Texas senator has a few compelling personal reasons to about-face.
“I am not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and attacks my father,” Cruz said the day after his convention speech where he earned boos from many delegates in response to his refusal to endorse Trump at his own nomination. Cruz had earlier called Trump a “sniveling coward,” “consistently disgraceful,” a “big government [liberal],” “a pathological liar,”
“That pledge [to endorse the eventual nominee] was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I’m going to nonetheless come like a puppy dog and say, ‘Thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father.’”
Trump famously suggested Cruz’ father was connected to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, made a confusing threat to “spill the beans” on Cruz’ wife Heidi, repeated a sexist slur about Cruz at a rally, and said Cruz was “worse than Hillary,” “the single biggest liar,” and “unhinged.”
The day after Trump accepted the Republican nomination in Cleveland, he told volunteers and the media, “I like Ted, he’s fine. Again, don’t want his endorsement. If he gives it, I will not accept it, just so you understand.”
On Saturday morning, however, Trump called the endorsement “a wonderful surprise” on Twitter:
The @SenTedCruz endorsement was a wonderful surprise. I greatly appreciate his support! We will have a tremendous victory on November 8th.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2016
Shortly after posting his endorsement of Trump on his official Facebook account, Cruz told Houston’s local ABC affiliate that he did not come to the decision quickly, and had forgiven Trump for all the insults.
“There were no deals,” he told KTRK’s Eyewitness News. “We had been engaged in conversations. You know it’s been a decision as I said I’ve been thinking about and praying about for weeks and months, discussing it with my family, and I made the decision today and announced it Friday.”
“Listen,” he continued. “(In) politics, there’s always criticism. If no one is throwing rocks at you, you’re not doing much of anything. I’ve discussed it with both Heidi (Cruz) and my dad. I love my wife. I love my dad. Both of them have forgiven Donald. I have forgiven him. This is not personal. This is not about our family. It’s about the country.”
It may be more about Cruz, and about Texas. In 2014, Cruz was the most popular politician in Texas with a 47 percent approval rating, according to a PPP poll, even higher than Sen. John Cornyn (R) and Gov. Rick Perry (R). Yet a poll conducted by KTVT-CBS 11/Dixie Strategies this August found that Cruz’ support had cratered, with 52 percent of likely voters finding Cruz “very unfavorable” and only 34 percent finding him at all favorable.
Going into a 2018 senate primary race, which could be competitive as former Gov. Rick Perry (of all people) polls well against Cruz and Rep Mike McCaul (R-TX) considers an establishment challenge, with numbers like that would not be ideal for Cruz. And majorities of respondents found Cruz’ decision not to endorse Trump made them like Cruz less.
While Texas supported Cruz over Trump in the primary, awarding him almost 44 percent of the vote on Super Tuesday, and polls between Clinton and Trump have been tighter than in past general election campaigns — even earning a campaign stop Friday from Democratic VP nominee Time Kaine — the state is still expected to support Trump. As polls in battleground states tighten and Trump’s chances of victory in various election models improve from rock-bottom lows in previous months, the prospect of a Trump presidency, and what a Senator Cruz would do in that scenario, became less of a fantastical idea.
Cruz is also likely hedging his bets between a Trump victory, where he would prefer to stay off any administration “enemies lists,” and a Trump defeat, which could leave an opening for Cruz to run again for the nomination in 2020.
On Friday, the same day Cruz wrote his Facebook post about voting for Trump, the GOP nominee released ten more names of judges he would consider for the Supreme Court, added to the list of 11 he released in May. Leading the list is the very conservative Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who has yet to endorse Trump and has called Cruz his “best friend.”
This could not have hurt Trump in Cruz’ eyes, and recalls a Cruz from earlier in the primary campaign who was a big Trump fan.
During a July interview with Meet the Press, Cruz said, “I like Donald Trump. He’s bold, he’s brash, and I get that it seems the favorite sport of the Washington media is to encourage some Republicans to attack other Republicans. I ain’t going to do it. I’m not interested in Republican on Republican violence.”
UPDATE: Cruz, at the Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday afternoon, said Hillary Clinton was unfit to be president. According to Rick Hasen, a professor of Law and Political Science at UC Irvine, Cruz refused to say whether Trump was fit to be president.
Cruz refuses to say that Trump is fit to be president
— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) September 24, 2016