Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) opted against endorsing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a close conservative ally, for president after Cruz announced his candidacy on Monday.
In response to Cruz unveiling his campaign, Lee issued a statement which did not make any mention of Cruz, according to Utah’s KSL. It’s surprising given how closely associated Lee and Cruz are by both Democrats and conservatives. Most notably, Lee aligned himself with Cruz during the latter’s crusade against Obamacare that resulted in a government shutdown in 2013.
“The most important thing for conservatives to focus on in the presidential race is not the candidate we run, but the agenda we run on,” Lee said in the statement. “I look forward to seeing how each of the candidates plan to apply conservative principles to reform our dysfunctional federal government and fix our broken status quo.”
A senior adviser to Lee, Boyd Matheson, told KSL that even though Cruz hit “some familiar themes” in his speech announcing his candidacy for president, those themes are also being touched on by other likely Republican presidential candidates: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Rand Paul (KY), and Sen. Marco Rubio (FL). Lee, according to Boyd, doesn’t want to make the “fatal mistake” of focusing just on personality without policy.
“I think the American people are just starving for some serious dialogue,” Matheson said. “It can’t just be style and sizzle and how many standing ovations you can get from a raucous crowd.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who’s aligned with the establishment wing of the GOP and has tussled with Cruz over fighting Obamacare in the past, also said on Monday he didn’t plan to back the new 2016 presidential candidate.
Lee has been making some surprising connections lately. After former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) said he wasn’t interested in challenging Lee in the Republican primary Lee announced that Huntsman would serve as a co-chairman of his re-election committee for Senate. Huntsman’s father, Jon Huntsman Sr., has been a very vocal critic of Lee.
Cruz does not poll at the head of the 2016 presidential field but his presence in the primary could still push the field to the right.
