Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Friday that the late Justice Antonin Scalia emerged the victor of this month’s elections.
Cruz told a standing-room only crowd at the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention that the election results lifting President-elect Trump to the presidency could well be described as the “revenge of fly-over country.” The Texas senator and former GOP primary rival to Trump indicated he thought the vacancy created by Scalia’s death played a large role in the election results.
“President-elect Trump assured the American people that if elected, he would nominate a constitutionalist in the mold of Justice Scalia. So in a very real respect, Justice Scalia was on the ballot as well,” Cruz said at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. “And thanks to the historic victory we saw last week, it gives me immense pleasure to say the people have spoken and Justice Scalia has won as well.”
Asked whether he had any interest in filling the vacant court seat himself, Cruz talked about his business as a senator but noted, “What I will say is that history is long and can take unexpected paths.”
Cruz encouraged the crowd to engage amicably in public service on behalf of the coming Trump administration and said he figured the Federalist Society gathering likely featured the largest number of future Trump administration officials anywhere.
But the Texas senator also warned that Republicans may face a perilous future if they do not do capture younger voters in larger measure before future elections. The challenge for Republicans now, as Cruz described it, is for every GOP-controlled bit of the government to deliver on its promises immediately to the American people.
Cruz, who may have had interest in the U.S. attorney general nomination awarded to Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, suggested he would be serving the country from the Senate as Trump enters the White House.
