Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told supporters that he might have to take on “the Castro brothers” in his 2018 Senate re-election campaign.
“Despite any record of achievement and a liberal ideology out of touch with the majority of Texans, the Castro brothers have the full support of the mainstream media and Washington establishment willing to do everything in their power to turn Texas blue,” a fundraising plea from the senator said Tuesday.
That message went out after Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, revealed that he would “take a look” at challenging the former presidential candidate. The Cruz-Castro matchup would pit two of the highest-profile Hispanics in either major political party against each other, guaranteeing that it would at least be an expensive campaign.
Not everyone thinks that Castro will try to unseat Cruz, especially in a midterm election cycle that generally favors Republicans. “People like attention, like to be in the conversation, build their profile, they get bored,” one Texas Republican operative told the Washington Examiner in a text message. “Ultimately, my guess is that these guys are smarter than to run against Cruz in Texas in ’18 … but you never know!”
The operative suggested that if either Castro brother — Julian Castro is the secretary of Housing and Urban Development — believed he could win a statewide election, one of them would have run for governor in 2014. “The Castros took a pass then because they knew it would set Dem efforts back even further by getting trounced,” the strategist said. “Having said that, it’s good for Sen. Cruz to be ready for any and all challengers.”
The Cruz campaign, which began preparing for the Senate re-election campaign almost as soon as his presidential campaign came to an end, included a line that might preempt suggestions that he’s distracting from GOP candidates running this year.
“This November, it is critical we elect conservatives up and down the ballot in order to prevent a liberal takeover of Washington D.C.,” the email said. “But our opponents are already making plans to defeat us, so we cannot afford to wait to engage until 2018.”
