Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has made few friends in the U.S. Senate, where he has a reputation as an anti-establishment crusader who doesn’t play nice, even with his fellow Republicans.
He called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar on the Senate floor. Sen. John McCain of Arizona dismissed him as “a wacko bird.” And when Cruz gave a 21-hour speech against Obamacare to stall budget negotiations, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina called it “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”
But now Cruz has shifted his attention from critiquing members of the Republican Party’s establishment to helping them.
Cruz fired off a fund raising email on Tuesday in a bid to help save the seats of six at-risk Republican senators, including Burr and Sen. Roy Blunt, a longtime lawmaker from Missouri who has served in Republican leadership in both the House and Senate.
“I don’t want to watch the news on November 9th and wonder if there were anything else we could have done to prevent the Senate from being put back in Democratic hands – Chuck Schumer’s hands – and I know you don’t either,” Cruz said in the email.
Blunt is locked in a pitched battle against Democratic challenger Jason Kander. National Journal reported this week that Blunt’s internal polls show Kander trailing him by a single point.
A poll released Tuesday showed Burr and his Democratic opponent Deborah Ross in a virtual tie, with Ross leading by less than a quarter of a point.
In the email Cruz sent on Tuesday, he painted a nightmare scenario for conservatives should Burr, Blunt and other Republicans lose.
“This election, the United States Senate is hanging by a thread. And I do NOT want to wake up in November and hear these words: Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. I know you don’t either.”
Democrats need to gain five seats in November to win an outright majority in the U.S. Senate.
An image embedded in the email showed an imaginary front page from Nov. 9, 2016 with a picture of Schumer’s grinning face and headlines that read, “New York’s Schumer Kicks GOP’s McConnell to the Curb” and “Global Markets Tumble on News of Shocking GOP losses.”
He then asked for help re-electing Blunt, Burr and other Republican senators in tough races across the country, including Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Rob Portman of Ohio, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Cruz said. “If Democrats take back the Senate we will see an increase in job-killing regulation and legislation, illegal immigration will continue unfettered, new fronts will be opened in the war on oil and gas – and we can forget about repealing Obamacare.”
He asked for donations of $250, $100, or even $50, and said all money raised would be split evenly between six critical races and go directly toward their campaigns.
“I don’t want to watch the news on November 9th and wonder if there were anything else we could have done to prevent the Senate from being put back in Democratic hands – Chuck Schumer’s hands – and I know you don’t either,” Cruz added.
Lindsay Wise: 202-383-6007, @lindsaywise