AUSTIN, Texas _ U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was crisscrossing Texas last week, meeting with constituents in Houston, El Paso, San Antonio, Laredo, Amarillo, Lubbock, Dallas and Tyler. It wasn't how Cruz had once hoped to be spending the second week of August, when, had things gone his way, he might have been hopscotching battleground states as the Republican nominee for president.
Instead, it was Donald Trump with rallies and speeches in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania _ Donald Trump, who Cruz refused to endorse for president in his speech at the Republican National Convention in July, and who, the day after he accepted the nomination in Cleveland, said he would not accept Cruz's endorsement if it were offered and swore he would spend what he could to defeat Cruz for re-election.
And so, Cruz found himself doing what a U.S. senator does during the August recess, particularly a senator who is up for a second term in two years and who, for the first time in his swift rise in Texas and national politics, finds himself not the hunter but the prey.
"I know there are people looking for someone to run against Ted Cruz because I've had four or five national leaders call to ask if I had an interest, which I don't by the way," said former Texas Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri, who added that Cruz's traversing Texas is exactly what he ought to be doing right now.
Among Republicans being recruited to challenge Cruz, according to a recent CNN story, is U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a six-term congressman from Austin who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. McCaul spokesman Walter Zaykowski said the congressman is focused on his job and re-election campaign this year _ but he did not rule out a Senate run.
"I think it is far too early for somebody to assume that Sen. Cruz would be vulnerable in 2018," Munisteri said. "It doesn't mean he won't be, but it's way too early and Sen. Cruz has time to rebuild his base."
"It looks like he's trying to batten down the hatches and reconnect where he's been disconnected," said Lubbock County GOP Chairman Carl Tepper, an early Trump supporter, who said West Texas farmers have been waiting a long time for Cruz to lend them his ear.
"He hasn't been much of a senator from Texas," Tepper said. "His interest has been running for president."
