Ted Cruz hints again that he WILL run for president in 2024 if Trump doesn’t

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz continued to hint that he would jump in the 2024 presidential race, but likely only if former President Donald Trump decided not to run. 

‘The race in ’24 will very much hinge on whatever President Trump decides to do,’ Cruz told NBC News for a profile that came out Monday about the Texas Republican’s presidential ambitions. ‘President Trump is going to make his decision whether or not he runs, or nobody else is going to make that decision for him. And I expect that everyone else will react accordingly when he does make that decision.’  

Last month, he answered, ‘absolutely, in a heartbeat,’ when asked by the Truth Gazette if he’d run for president in 2024. 

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz continued to hint that he would jump in the 2024 presidential race, but likely only if former President Donald Trump decided not to run

‘There’s a reason historically that the runner-up is almost always the next nominee,’ Cruz said, calling the 2016 campaign ‘the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.’ 

In recent history, Democrat Hillary Clinton became the Democratic nominee in 2016 after losing her party’s primary to former President Barack Obama in 2008. 

Similarly, now Sen. Mitt Romney ran in the Republican primary in 2008 and lost, only to earn his party’s nomination in 2012.  The late Sen. John McCain ran in 2000 and lost, and then won his party’s nomination in 2008. 

However, all three lost their general election races.   

That being said, now President Joe Biden mounted presidential bids twice before the 2020 race – in 1988, with his bid derailed due to a plagiarism scandal, and in 2008, dropping out after the Iowa caucuses only to be later selected by Obama as the Illinois senator’s running mate.  

Former President Donald Trump still has a firm grip on the Republican Party, with 49 per cent of registered voters saying they’d select him in a GOP primary, versus the 2 per cent who would select Cruz 

Cruz argued that the runner-up had an advantage because ‘you come in with just an enormous base of support.’ 

But recent polling shows the firm grip Trump still has on his party. 

In a Politico/Morning Consult survey, 49 per cent of registered voters said they’d back Trump in a GOP primary, while just 2 per cent selected Cruz. 

Former Vice President Mike Pence performed second best after Trump, garnering 13 per cent, while Romney attracted 4 per cent.  

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is getting a lot of 2024 buzz, was not included in that survey. 

‘I don’t think he would run against Trump,’ a person close to Cruz told NBC News. ‘I don’t know that Trump’s going to run. But if Trump doesn’t run, I’m quite certain he will run.’   

If Trump doesn’t run, his endorsement will be the most potent of any Republican to select an heir-apparent from the pack.  

Cruz has made good with the now ex-president. 

He went from fighting with Trump over social media comments the real estate investor made about Cruz’s wife, Heidi, to being one of his top allies in Congress during the Republican’s White House tenure. 

And Cruz, and Sen. Josh Hawley, were the leaders in the Senate on January 6 to object to the Electoral College vote count.