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Ted Cruz Calls 2022 Elections ‘Enormously Consequential,’ Does Not Rule Out 2024 Run

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz is focused on helping Republicans gain control of the House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections, but he may also be eying a 2024 presidential run.

During an interview with Fox News, Cruz called Republicans big wins last Tuesday in Virginia and other states “enormously consequential.”

“I think the elections in Virginia, the elections in New Jersey, they’re foreshadowing what’s coming next year in 2022,” Cruz said told Fox News before his speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Republican Glenn Youngkin won Virginia’s gubernatorial race against former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Republicans also won the offices of lieutenant governor, attorney general, and recaptured the majority in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

In New Jersey, GOP nominee Jack Ciattarelli nearly unseated Democratic incumbent Phil Murphy in the gubernatorial race.

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“I endorsed Glenn. I campaigned with Glenn. I barnstormed all over the state of Virginia with Glenn. Spent two days doing rallies all over Virginia,” Cruz said.

Cruz predicted that “2022 is going to be a wave election. It’s going to be an election like 2010,” when Republicans recaptured the House and made major gains in the Senate.

Cruz said he was going to wait and see what President Donald Trump decided to do.

“When I ran in ’16, it was the most fun I’ve had in my life,” he said. “History shows the runner-up in the Republican Party is almost always the next nominee. We’ll see what President Trump decides to do, but I am going to fight to pull this country back from the abyss because this country’s worth fighting for.”

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The bigger question is whether Trump run for president in 2024 or sit back and play kingmaker.

It’s still unclear what Trump will do, but the man many consider to be the second most popular choice appears to be bowing out.

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week that he was not considering a run for president in 2024 that could pit him against Trump in the Republican primary.

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“All the speculation about me [running for president] is purely manufactured,” DeSantis told reporters. “I just do my job and we work hard… I hear all this stuff and honestly, it’s nonsense.”

DeSantis is polling a distant second to Trump among Republicans, 67% to 10% in the latest survey.

Breitbart reported:

DeSantis’s remark follows a series of polls showing the governor in the top tier in hypothetical 2024 Republican primary matchups.

An Emerson College survey released last week, for example, showed both Trump and DeSantis standing as the only two GOP candidates garnering double-digit support — 67 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

When Trump is taken out of the scenario, DeSantis takes a commanding lead, garnering 32 percent to former Vice President Mike Pence’s 24 percent and Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) 13 percent.

Trump is beginning to edge ahead of Joe Biden in a hypothetical 2024 presidential election matchup.

A recent survey released by Emerson College found that Trump is now President Biden 47% to 46%.

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For Trump to make such a political comeback after what happened in the 2020 election cycle is incredible.

“Historically, this data reminds me of 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt failed to win the Republican nomination from then-President Taft and created a third party dooming the Republican chances against Woodrow Wilson,” Spencer Kimball, Director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement.

“This data suggests that Republicans want either Trump or a Trumpian candidate to be their nominee, or half of them may split from the party,” he added.

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