The chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, sent an unusual email Wednesday to some House members asking them “to say supportive things” about Cruz’s presidential candidacy.
As reported by Roll Call, Cruz chief of staff Paul Teller wrote several conservative House members that if they were not ready to endorse Cruz to at least say positive things about him. Cruz’s office confirmed the email to McClatchy which was written on Teller’s personal account.
Cruz was the first presidential aspirant to announce his candidacy, followed by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky. and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., but there are as many as a dozen more Republicans likely to enter the race.
“Real quick, now that Ted Cruz’s candidacy for president is official, I was wondering if you’d be willing to say supportive things about Ted in public/ in the media,” wrote Teller. “Ideally, I know he’d love a formal endorsement, but that may be too much to ask this early on.”
Teller went on to say that the Texas senator “wants to show as much congressional support as possible” for his candidacy.
Ironically, Cruz has run afoul of many GOP members of Congress in his two years in the Senate, especially by pushing for the partial federal shut-down in the fall of 2013 which GOP leaders opposed.
However, he does have a following among tea party members.
Teller himself is a controversial figure in the House. He was the long-time executive director of the Republican Study Committee until the group’s then-chairman, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., fired him in December 2013 for working with outside conservative groups against a budget deal many members favored. Teller was promptly hired by Cruz as deputy chief of staff and is now chief of staff.