A super PAC has launched in the hope of unseating Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) next year.
The Lose Cruz super PAC, created by a group of Texas strategists, hopes to drive anti-Cruz messaging through advertisements online and on television, with the first one scheduled to air next week.
PAC senior adviser Sawyer Hackett told NBC News that the group plans to use infamous Cruz moments in its ad messaging, pointing to the senator’s trip to Cancún, Mexico, during the winter storm that wiped out Texas’s power grid in 2021, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, and his gig as a host of his own podcast.
NBC reports the group already has seven-figure backing.
“Ted Cruz has never been more vulnerable than he is this cycle,” Hackett told NBC, noting that several of Cruz’s infamous moments happened after his slim victory over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke in the 2018 election.
“He hosts three episodes a week talking about a whole bunch of stuff — none of which Texans care about whatsoever — and not doing his job,” Hackett added. “We’re laying the groundwork for a Democratic, independent, Republican coalition of voters who universally just dislike this guy and don’t trust him.”
“Cruz is very adept at manipulating the media. He is in and on all types of channels, and he likes to try and drive narrative,” Lose Cruz founder Sean Haynes added, saying that the PAC will help “send a signal to help everyone stay on message — to not respond to what he’s saying but to attack what he’s doing.”
“It’s about him betraying the country and abandoning the state,” Haynes said.
The Hill has reached out to Cruz’s office for comment.
Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) and state Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D) are both seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Cruz, though he could draw other potential opponents as Democrats again set their hopes on statewide office in Texas.