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Senator Ted Cruz showed up on New Year’s Day to support the Texas Longhorns at their Sugar Bowl showdown against the Washington Huskies. Despite a 12 and one record before the big game, the Longhorns ended up losing 37 to 31. Some fans have blamed Cruz for this loss, even though he didn’t actually participate in the game. This wasn’t like Donald Trump’s 2020 coup attempt. Cruz was just a passive observer.
Texas sports teams don’t seem to do well when Cruz supports them in person. Since 2017, sports bettors are 15 to two on betting against a team when Cruz is present. This has led to what people who believe in such things call the “Ted Cruz curse.” It doesn’t just affect American democracy but also important things, like sporting events.
It got so bad that last fall, Houston Astros fans begged Cruz to stay home for the critical seventh game against the Texas Rangers. He refused and the Astros lost in a blowout to the Rangers, who’d go on to win their first ever World Series championship. Cruz did not slink away in shame but instead insisted that he wasn’t a blight on humanity, despite all obvious evidence.
“Lying hacks @RollingStone: For 7 years, Catherine & I have attended nearly EVERY Astros home playoff game,” he complained on the generic social media site. “If they’re going to blame me for our recent home losses, pls also credit us for TWO World Series Championships & SEVEN consecutive ALCS’s — we were there cheering Stros on!”
So, Ted Cruz is arguing with the media about whether or not he’s worse luck than 13 black cats in a room full of broken mirrors. This seems like more icing on his political tombstone. Since he won re-election in 2018, he’s tried to overthrow the duly elected government, abandoned his freezing constituents during a devastating winter storm, and cost the Astros a World Series pennant. These are probably all equally bad, so maybe Texans have finally suffered enough and are willing to put Cruz out of our misery.
CNN ranks Cruz’s Senate seat as one of the 10 most likely to flip in 2023. Everyone else is either from an actual swing state or is a Democrat in West Virginia, Montana, or Ohio. Cruz is the incumbent senator from Texas, where Republicans dominate. Nonetheless, Cruz is remarkably unpopular. He hasn’t yet sunk to Kyrsten Sinema levels, but his approval rating is underwater. He won re-election by less than three points in 2018, while Republicans John Cornyn and Greg Abbott won their most recent elections in near blowouts.
House Rep. Colin Allred is the current favorite to win the Democratic nomination to challenge Cruz. In the third quarter of 2023, Allred raised $4.7 million to Cruz’s reported $5.4 million. CNN notes, though, that “the massive small-dollar donations [Cruz] inspires from his detractors don’t necessarily translate to defeat for the incumbent.” This was unfortunately the case in 2018 when Democrat Beto O’Rourke consistently outraised Cruz yet still came up short.
A former NFL player, Allred is honest, decent, and he doesn’t make your eyes bleed when you look at him. He’s everything Cruz is not. That also means he’s a Democrat in a state where that party affiliation is its own bad luck charm. Allred has previously defeated a Republican incumbent and would like to continue that streak. His campaign plans to make health care a key issue, especially abortion rights. Texas has passed draconian Fugitive Uterus Act abortion bans, and Allred has spoken out against the horrible Kate Cox situation. Cox had to flee the state to terminate her high-risk pregnancy, and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Republican-controlled Texas Supreme Court seemed intent on letting her die or suffer permanent injury.
Cruz, an inveterate coward, has refused to even discuss Kate Cox, whose brutal treatment from the state was the direct result of policies he still vocally supports. He’s a horrible senator and leader, and Texas is better off if he abandons politics and devotes his life to Dave Chappelle-style comedy.
Make the better choice, Texas, and maybe we’ll all enjoy the end of the Cruz curse.
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