Sen. Ted Cruz appears to be gearing up to run for president in 2016, but he will need to navigate a Republican Senate majority first.
During the past two years, Cruz has established a reputation as a divisive, controversial firebrand in the Senate. Democrats, and even some Republicans, have criticized him as the driving force behind the government shutdown last year.
Cruz’s role in that episode also earned him national name recognition and praise from conservatives outside the Beltway, who lauded his all-or-nothing approach to defunding Obamacare.
But that obstructionist, ideologically-driven strategy might not work for Cruz under the new Republican majority in the Senate.
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the likely majority leader for the new Congress, has indicated since the election that he intends to run a tight ship.
“There is no possibility of a government shutdown,” McConnell told Time on Wednesday.
McConnell has also said, however, that a full repeal of Obamacare might not be possible. Meanwhile, Cruz said in an interview with the Washington Post before Election Day that Republicans should “pursue every means possible to repeal Obamacare” during the next Congress.
But Cruz might not have as much support to pursue a full repeal as he did during the last Congress, when he counted Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, as a loyal sidekick. Lee will be up for re-election in 2016, and he might be more cautious as a result.
“For Cruz, it’s not credible to make the case that every other senator is a squish except you,” said one Republican strategist with ties to the Senate.
Cruz has started to send signals that he might not be interested in again pursuing such an adversarial approach, however, even though being a thorn in the side of the Republican establishment has become an important facet of his national brand.
On Wednesday, Cruz called McConnell after his victory and the two shared a “cordial conversation,” McConnell said Wednesday. Cruz’s Senate office did not comment to the Washington Examiner on the nature of the call.
And Cruz campaigned in the final weeks of the midterm election cycle for some more moderate Republican candidates, including Alaska’s Dan Sullivan and Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts.
Cruz’s political team did not offer comment on how Cruz has sketched out his strategy for the coming months. But, among those Republicans who have watched it unfold to date, there is some acute skepticism that Cruz could successfully turn over a new leaf, should he want to.
“What he did in the last three days [on the campaign trail] won’t cause everyone to forget what he did over the last 18 months,” the GOP strategist said.
