Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) returned to Washington this week after dropping his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and all eyes are watching to see whether he will take the opportunity to work with his colleagues after years of obstruction.
After he led a government shutdown in the fall of 2013, Cruz was viewed by many leaders in his party as a destructive and reckless force. Now, he’s got a fresh reputation as one of the last men standing against Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee who makes a lot of senators queasy.
“He ran a hell of a campaign,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham once balked at Cruz’s behavior in the Senate, which he said made it “impossible for me to believe that he could bring this country together.”
“The process did elevate Ted. How he uses that will be up to him,” Graham said. “I do respect him more.”
Graham had been one of few senators who eventually supported Cruz on the campaign trail. Personal animus against Cruz kept many lawmakers from endorsing him, even as most publicly and privately acknowledged he was the truer conservative in the race.
So, fresh off the campaign trail and still tending to his wounds of defeat, Cruz has a chance to chose another path in the Senate. Will he be humbled to come back to work, or further emboldened to fight for his own political comeback?
“You just go work,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) when asked how Cruz should proceed now that he’s back on Capitol Hill for good.
Unlike Cruz, Rubio had been a more under-the-radar force in the GOP Senate. He worked overtime before he announced his intention to run for president, building relationships with his colleagues and raising money for them through his leadership PAC. He put up ads defending Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) when she was attacked for her vote against a background check bill, and he helped raise $200,000 for now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) when he was running for re-election in 2013.
Cruz could learn a thing or two from following that model.
The Texas Republican has been cagey about whether or not he will support Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee. But there are nearly a dozen competitive Senate races in 2016 where he could invest, fundraise and campaign for colleagues in hopes that the favor may be returned to him should he run for president again.
For now, though, colleagues say they are ready for Cruz to just get back to doing his legislative work.
“He’s fresh off the campaign trail, and I assume that when he re-enters the Senate, hopefully he’ll plow into Senate work and help us get some things done around here,” said Sen. John Thune (R-SD). “It would be good to have him back. He’s a member of my committee, the commerce committee, and we haven’t seen him for awhile.”
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said that he didn’t think Cruz is returning to the Senate with any greater influence, but he did hope Cruz learned a thing or two out on the campaign trail that may inspire him to conduct himself in a more productive manner on Capitol Hill.
“I think he comes back with maybe a spirit of a little more cooperation than has had in the past because a lot of him not getting involved was the fact that he was running for president,” Inhofe said.
Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
