This next election is certainly going to be an interesting one, especially since it is the first time in over ten years that President Trump isn’t running for the office…at least, not yet anyway.
Sen. Ted Cruz is not exactly pretending that his presidential ambitions disappeared after 2016.
The Texas Republican acknowledged Wednesday that “it’s no secret” he still wants to be president, leaving the door wide open to another White House campaign as Republicans begin looking toward the post-Trump future and the potentially crowded 2028 primary.
Cruz made the comments during an appearance on Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s podcast, where the conversation turned to possible Republican presidential contenders.
“I will say, this is a bug that history has proved is rarely ended,” Cruz said, according to The Texas Tribune.
“It is a permanent and often fatal bug,” he added.
When asked whether that means another Cruz presidential campaign is coming, the senator kept his answer appropriately Washington: “time will tell.”
Translation, nobody should throw away the old campaign signs just yet.
Cruz certainly knows what a presidential campaign involves. He finished second behind President Trump during the bruising 2016 Republican primary, emerging as President Trump’s strongest remaining opponent before ultimately suspending his campaign.
A decade later, the relationship between the two men looks dramatically different.
President Trump was recently asked whether he believes Cruz could become president and offered considerable praise for his former rival.
“He’s very talented, he’s a very good friend of mine. I think he might do that, yeah,” President Trump said.
“He’s a talented guy,” he added.
The developing 2028 conversation already includes several major Republican names. Patrick mentioned Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Cruz as potential contenders.
Patrick suggested Abbott might want to run, although Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign press secretary, Eduardo Leal, gave a considerably less mysterious answer when asked about 2028.
“No,” Leal said.
Cruz, meanwhile, is making no such promise.
During another interview while promoting his new biography of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Cruz rejected the idea that Republicans had already settled on Vance as President Trump’s natural successor.
“Oh no,” Cruz said. “There’s going to be a full discussion about who we are and what we believe.”
Cruz added that he would “certainly be part of the discussion, because I care deeply.”
That discussion could become one of the Republican Party’s biggest political battles once President Trump leaves office. Cruz argued that the old anti-Trump faction within the GOP has effectively disappeared.
“There is no Never Trump lane,” Cruz said.
He also praised President Trump for displaying a quality Republican voters spent years demanding from their elected officials: a willingness to fight.
“Love him or hate him, you’ve got to acknowledge this guy has a backbone, he is fearless. And there are a lot of Republicans that were so tired of lily-livered Republicans who were afraid of their own shadow,” Cruz said. “Trump doesn’t hide in the corner. He is ferocious. I like that.”
Cruz did offer some criticism, saying he wishes President Trump demonstrated greater “message discipline and focus.” He also revealed that the two communicate weekly or sometimes daily.
“He doesn’t always listen to me but he frequently listens to me, and I’m grateful because he’s got courage,” Cruz said.
The larger question for 2028 is what Republicanism looks like after President Trump. Cruz believes the party will have to decide whether it remains committed to limited government and free markets or embraces a more expansive economic role for Washington.
And judging from his latest comments, Cruz would very much like a seat at that table.
Preferably, perhaps, the seat behind the Resolute Desk.
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