Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday endorsed against a fellow Texas Republican in Congress, backing state Rep. Steve Toth over Rep. Dan Crenshaw ahead of next week’s primary.
“Steve faithfully served the people of Texas in the Texas House of Representatives, championing our Texas values of liberty, limited government, and constitutional governance,” Cruz wrote in a post on X, adding that Toth is an “an unwavering fighter for school choice, fiscal responsibility, and the next generation of Americans.
“Washington needs bold leadership and representatives who will stand up for Texans at every turn,” he added.
Cruz is arguably Toth’s highest-profile endorsement. Toth has attacked Crenshaw, a four-term incumbent, for supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia and accused him of being too moderate on immigration.
Crenshaw is also the only incumbent Republican seeking election in one of the three states holding primaries next week — Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas — who doesn’t have President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Crenshaw has pushed back hard at the attacks on his conservative bona fides from Toth and his allies.
“If you think I’m not MAGA enough, then you’re not following me on social media, that’s the reality,” Crenshaw said in a recent interview with the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board. “If you don’t think I support Trump enough, then you’re not following me, you’re not listening to a thing I say. I’m out there defending his policies pretty hard and have defended them in extremely hard places in the past.”
“If you want somebody who doesn’t know how to do that to represent you, by all means, get rid of me, get rid of one of the people who’s never lost an argument against a Democrat,” he continued.
Crenshaw and his allies have blanketed the airwaves attacking Toth as a “RINO,” an acronym for “Republican in Name Only,” for siding against Gov. Greg Abbott’s property tax plan. (Toth argued the plan didn’t go far enough.)