Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday warned fellow Republicans at the party convention in his home state of Texas that the Democratic Party has been overtaken by a “new and dangerous red-green alliance” of “communists and Islamists” who are defined by hostility.
Harkening back to Ronald Reagan, he called this year’s election a “time of choosing” in the face of the new extremist threat.
“They hate Christians. They hate Jews. They hate capitalism. They hate the Constitution, and they hate America,” Mr. Cruz said.
He tied the moment to a broader struggle against extremism, invoking the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Sept 11 attacks, and what he described as the rising threats from communism and Islamism.
“Hear me now, Sharia law has no place in America,” he said, sparking raucous applause from the crowd. “Sharia law is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution, and we need to stand together and stop it now.”
Mr. Cruz pointed to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as well as Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominees in Michigan and Texas, as examples of political radicals who view the world through this twisted ideological lens.
“We have a rendezvous with destiny,” he said. “Together, we must stand and fight for the Constitution. We must stand and fight for freedom. We stand and defeat the communists. We must stand and defeat the Islamists.”
Mr. Cruz is once again signaling he could seek the presidency after falling short against Mr. Trump in 2016.
He has made repeated trips to Iowa to boost Republican candidates. He has also built up a podcast and radio audience, and used speeches to Republican Jewish groups to stake out foreign policy positions that put some daylight between him and Vice President J.D. Vance, seen by many in the party as the early front-runner for 2028.
Asked in a recent interview whether the GOP had already “coalesced” around Mr. Vance, Mr. Cruz was dismissive. “Oh, no,” he told MS NOW last month. “There’s gonna be a full discussion about who we are, and what we believe.” He added that he would “certainly be part of the discussion.”
In a separate interview the same day, Mr. Cruz brushed off a direct question about running, telling a reporter, “We’ll have this conversation another time.”
Mr. Cruz has made his way back into the good graces of the MAGA faithful after emerging as one of Mr. Trump’s most vicious critics during the 2016 primary.
After Mr. Trump suggested, based on a tabloid report, that Mr. Cruz’s father had ties to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Mr. Cruz unloaded on the eventual nominee in an extraordinary, unscripted news conference in Indiana.
“This man is a pathological liar,” Mr. Cruz told reporters at the time. “He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth.”
Mr. Trump, who had branded his rival “Lyin’ Ted” throughout the race, fired back that Mr. Cruz was unraveling under the pressure of a collapsing campaign.
Mr. Cruz went on to lose the Indiana primary and suspended his campaign the next day, clearing Mr. Trump’s path to the nomination. He initially declined to endorse Mr. Trump at the Republican National Convention that July, drawing boos from delegates, before reversing course and backing him before the election.
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