Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters on Tuesday that he will run for a third term in the Senate in 2024 – an assertion that suggests the Texas Republican is not planning a presidential bid.
While Texas law allows a candidate to run for Senate and president at the same time, Cruz said this when asked if he were running for reelection or would mount another bid at the White House: “I’m running for reelection to the Senate.”
Cruz had run for president in 2016 but fell short to former President Donald Trump during a bitter primary contest. But ahead of 2024, Cruz has instead been taking to steps to build a reelection bid, telling his supporters that he expects Democrats to pour huge sums of cash to try to unseat him.
But as Cruz prepares to run again for Senate, the 2024 Republican presidential field is now starting to take shape. Former South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley announced earlier in the day in a video that she will run for president in 2024, becoming the first major rival to challenge Trump for the GOP nomination.
Cruz has hinted before that he hopes to launch another White House bid at some point in the future.
“Look, I hope to run again,” the Texas Republican told The Christian Science Monitor in 2019. “We came very, very close in 2016. And it’s the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.”
CNN’s Clare Foran, Ethan Cohen, Kate Sullivan and Paul LeBlanc contributed to this report.