Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has been urged to run for president in 2028, Cruz told Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, the Washington Post reported in December.
In recent months, Cruz has delivered speeches condemning rising antisemitism on the right and urging Republicans to repudiate popular pundit Tucker Carlson, while positioning himself as a hawkish voice on foreign policy.
Cruz, 55, has been “seriously” considering a presidential run, Klein told the Washington Post. A bid would potentially pit him against Vice President JD Vance, whom many Republicans expect to join the 2028 race.
Cruz has told donors that Vance’s views are “dangerously isolationist,” according to people familiar with his comments.
A few weeks before his meeting with Klein, Cruz called Carlson “a coward” during a Las Vegas speech to Jewish conservatives and denounced what he termed “poisonous lies” of antisemitism.
He praised Trump as a leader who “loves the Jewish people,” then asked the crowd, “When Trump is not in the White House, what then?” An audience member shouted, “Ted Cruz!”
Cruz has urged Republicans to rid the party of Carlson’s influence, arguing the commentator is injecting antisemitism into the movement, which Carlson has rejected.
Their June interview turned heated over Israel, and Cruz stumbled when he failed to identify Iran’s population. Since then, the two have traded increasingly personal attacks.
Anyone eyeing the Republican nomination for 2028 will have to face Vance, who leads early polls and is closely aligned with Trump. Trump, however, has been noncommittal about endorsing a successor, leaving space for rivals.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Carlson ally, predicted a Cruz–Vance showdown, adding, “All of us hate Ted Cruz.”
Vance has pushed back on claims of a right-wing antisemitism problem. He argued in a recent interview that it is “slanderous” to say the conservative movement is extremely antisemitic and, in a social media exchange, wrote that disliking Israeli policies is not the same as antisemitism.
Cruz warned Netanyahu about rising right-wing antisemitism
Cruz, who describes himself as a “noninterventionist hawk” and a longtime ally of Israel, says anti-Israel foreign policy emboldens terrorists. In early July, he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Blair House that antisemitism on the right was rising to unprecedented levels. Netanyahu responded, “That’s Qatar, that’s Iran, that’s astroturf, that’s paid for,” Cruz recounted in a later speech.
Cruz said he remained concerned, noting replies to his posts were flooded with anti-Jewish bigotry from seemingly ordinary users.
“Every Hamas or Hezbollah or IRGC terrorist that Israel took out makes Americans safer,” he said. “And those who don’t see that are not acting in accordance with American national security interests.”
While a source close to Cruz told the Washington Post the senator is weighing a second White House bid, few Republicans have publicly rallied to his side in the Carlson dispute.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw said he “applauds” Cruz for speaking out, while Sen. Tommy Tuberville characterized the back-and-forth as personal. Sen. Richard Blumenthal praised Cruz’s “guts” for challenging a powerful conservative figure.
As internal GOP battles intensified following the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, Trump has avoided taking sides, calling Carlson a “nice guy” and Cruz a “good friend.” Some donors remain skeptical of Cruz’s path.
“If JD Vance is running, I’m going to be supporting JD Vance,” said Hal Lambert, who backed Cruz in 2016. “I just don’t understand what the platform would be. The platform would be, ‘I’m Ted, and that’s JD’?”