As Texas was hit with temperatures as low as 3 degrees fahrenheit last month, senator Ted Cruz was spotted on a trip to Cancun, Mexico with his two daughters and his wife. 

As backlash piled up for the vacation, many people were wondering how this might affect Senator Cruz in the future. With Cruz’s re-election up in 2024 and a possible campaign for president, Republican strategist Alex Conant was quick to give his two cents on the scandal.

“Natural disasters have a way of upending politicians’ careers”, Conant said. “The first rule of any natural disaster is to show up and Cruz broke that rule.”

Senator Cruz responded by saying that his daughters wanted to go to someplace warm after the Texas power outages, but eventually admitted that going to Cancun was a poor decision.

“In hindsight I wouldn’t have done it”, said Cruz. He also mentioned that it’s been his “intention to work remotely.” 

After seeing the controversy surrounding Ted Cruz, Donald Trump Jr. came to the defense of the man, whom his father called “Lyin’ Ted”.

In a twitter statement, Trump Jr. said “There’s also a difference between a Governor and a Senator in terms of job description and what they can do for localized disasters. Optics is one thing but let’s be real here.”

Even after criticizing Cruz, Alex Conant also said that the senator, “made a big mistake, but did a good job of putting it behind him as quickly as he could.”

After his vacation, Cruz returned to America about twelve hours after leaving, and gave a speech at CPAC, which is the Conservative Political Action Conference, and referenced his trip while speaking about Orlando, Florida, saying “Orlando is awesome. It’s not as nice as Cancun, but it’s awesome.” 

The presidential election in 2024 is a long time away, but controversy now may have cost Ted Cruz his chance to be the nominee with a mistake that has recently happened. With his political career in jeopardy and his approval rating crashing more than 23 percent according to the Independent, Senator Cruz knows that in order to keep himself afloat, his next few moves in this political chess game will have to be very calculated.