National Review reports that less than two months after he left the 2016 Republican race, the Texas senator is quietly laying the groundwork for a presidential bid four years from now.
Two new nonprofits—filled with several Cruz staffers from the 2016 campaign—will be in charge of maintaining the sprawling network of donors, activists, religious leaders, and grassroots organizers that Cruz courted diligently when running for president. They’ll also coordinate his travel to early states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
Cruz is also appointing political strategist David Polyansky, who advised Cruz on his campaign, to be his new Senate chief of staff. The choice, National Review’s Eliana Johnson writes, “signals a shift toward a more politically sensitive legislative approach that some Cruz allies have noticed since his return to the Senate.” Maybe we can expect to see a more conciliatory Ted Cruz on Capitol Hill, a dramatic transformation for a man who was perhaps the most hated lawmaker in Washington.
Cruz likes to get a head start. He was the first candidate to enter the 2016 presidential race in a March 2015 speech at Liberty University. If he sticks to that same timeline for 2020, we could be less than three years away from seeing Cruz announce, again, that he’s running for president.