NBC News (“‘A Watergate-level repudiation’: Ted Cruz weighs in on midterm wave“):
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Wednesday described the historic Democratic sweep in the midterm elections as an “ass-kicking” for Republicans, urging the party to deliver on economic promises in the next cycle.
“It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election, it was a Watergate-level repudiation,” Cruz said on an episode of his podcast, describing the Democratic shift across the country as a “blue tsunami.”
Cruz, who is not up for re-election until 2030, said that “understandably, people were pissed off,” as “Republicans didn’t do enough to address their very real pain.”
He pointed to tariffs’ raising costs and the Iran war’s dragging on for “too long,” adding, “Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high.”
“Too many Republican politicians seem like they didn’t understand or they didn’t care,” he said.
[…]
“We need to listen and respond. We need to champion economic policies that make a real difference in working people’s lives, and we need to deal with the consequences,” Cruz said.
Cruz said he did call his new colleague, Democratic Sen.-elect James Talarico, to congratulate him on his victory.
“I will work with Democrats when they’re willing to be reasonable,” he said. “It was a pleasant conversation, and I told him that I looked forward to working with him to try to benefit Texas.”
However, he also said, “Texas will be red again.”
“We have not suddenly become a bunch of tofu-eating, gun-banning, tutu-wearing pinko commie liberals. That ain’t us. Texas is still Texas,” Cruz said. “We will rebuild as a true blue-collar party not by embracing socialism, but by being real free-market conservatives.”
This is rather clearly an attempt to position himself as a break from President Trump’s most unpopular policies. It’ll likely be months before Cruz officially puts his hat in the ring, but he’s clearly running to be the post-Trump standard bearer of the party.
Cruz is rather unpopular with his Senate colleagues and isn’t all that popular in the Lone Star State. Still, he was easily the second-largest vote-getter in the 2016 primaries, winning 11 contests, including the Iowa Caucuses. He won the endorsements of early dropouts, including Jeb Bush, Rick Perry, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, and Carly Fiorina.
My strong preference would be for someone outside Trump’s orbit and who, unlike Cruz, hasn’t kowtowed to Trump, to emerge as the 2028 nominee. Alas, Trump has dominated the party since announcing his candidacy in 2015. Despite his horrendous job approval ratings (minus 20 in the RCP aggregate) and the worst electoral defeat since the Watergate backlash of 1974, he remains wildly popular (77% approval in the latest Newseek poll) with those who still identify as Republicans. It’s quite likely that he’ll be able to annoint his succesor.
