TED CRUZ SKEWERED FOR FLYING TO CANCUN WHILE TEXANS FREEZE

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz faced widespread condemnation for taking a tropical vacation with his family in Mexico while his home state was paralyzed by a deadly winter storm that left many without power or safe drinking water and several people frozen to death, Steve Peoples and Jake Bleiberg reported for the Associated Press (AP).

As criticism of the trip mounted, Cruz returned to Texas and said it was “obviously a mistake” even as CNN reported that the Cruz family had invited friends to join them in Cancun as millions of Texans were without power and water.

By Thursday, Cruz was knocked by everyone from the chair of the Texas Republican Party to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive firebrand. The question is whether the damage will have a lasting impact on Cruz’s political prospects.

Narrowly reelected to the Senate in 2018, he won’t face voters in Texas again until 2024. He’s also seen as a likely candidate for the GOP presidential nomination that year. Even the state Republican Party chair declined to come to Cruz’s defense on Thursday.

“That’s something that he has to answer to his constituents about,” Texas GOP Chair Allen West said when asked whether Cruz’s travel was appropriate while Texans are without power and water. “I’m here trying to take care of my family and look after my friends and others that are still without power,” West said. “That’s my focus.”

Cruz is already one of the most villainized Republicans in Congress, having created adversaries across the political spectrum in a career defined by far-right policies and fights with the establishment as well as his smarmy loyalty to defeated US president Donald Trump.

More recently, he emerged as a leader in former Trump’s push to overturn the results of the November election. Billboards calling for his resignation stood along Texas highways earlier in the month.

Reuters reported that Cruz had to cut short his vacation after newspapers and CNN reported on his flight to Cancun.

The Republican lawmaker cut his trip short after his travels were reported, saying he would return to Texas and “get to the bottom of what happened.”

As of Thursday afternoon, 797 public water systems were reporting disruptions in service, affecting 13.2 million people, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Most of those affected have been told they need to boil their water.

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