Is Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) considering a 2016 presidential run? Good question — and one that he didn’t answer this week.
Presidential speculation for the GOP’s 2016 field was abuzz on Friday, as both Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) traveled to Iowa to attend a fundraiser. While there, Cruz sat down for an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, aired Sunday on ‘This Week.’ Karl asked Cruz about a possible run for the White House, but Cruz refused to announce his intentions, instead focusing on his role in the current national debate.
“We are having a national debate about which direction the country should go,” said Cruz, explaining his trip to the important Midwest state. “What I am doing now is trying to participate in that national debate.”
Karl pressed Cruz, asking if he was ready to run for president.
“Jon, I’ve been in the Senate all of seven months,” Cruz responded. “The last office I was elected to was student council.”
Cruz then touched on several of the subjects that are currently a part of that national debate, including his passionate commitment for the right to bear arms. He criticized the President for fighting to restrict Second Amendment rights.
“I’m on the judiciary committee,” Cruz said. “We had hearings on guns. I believe passionately in the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and when the president used the tragic shooting in Connecticut as an excuse not to go after violent criminals, not to stop crime, but instead to push an anti-gun agenda — I wouldn’t be doing my job representing the State of Texas, representing 26 million Texans if I didn’t stand up and fight for the Second Amendment.”
Cruz went on to highlight Obama’s political agenda for restricting the Second Amendment, calling the President’s policies “wrong and dangerous.”
Though he refused to comment on his 2016 aspirations, Cruz did offer his take on why Republicans have struggled in recent presidential elections.
“I think the biggest reason President Obama got elected in 2008 is Republicans lost their way,” the Texas Senator said. “We weren’t standing for principles.”
He argued that Americans are tired of Democrats driving up the national debt and Republicans who have often been complicit with that — thereby “disregarding the Constitution.”
His final bit of advice for Republicans was simple: nominate a strong, unapologetic conservative to run for President, and the odds are in your favor.
“If you look at last 40 years, a consistent pattern emerges: any time Republicans nominate a candidate for president who runs as a strong conservative, we win,” Cruz said. “And when we nominate a moderate who doesn’t run as a conservative, we lose.”
