Sen. Ted Cruz
Senator for Texas
pronounced ted // krooz
Cruz is the junior senator from Texas and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Cruz is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 52 years old.
![Photo of Sen. Ted Cruz [R-TX]](/static/legislator-photos/412573-200px.jpeg)
Our work to hold Congress accountable only matters if elections are decided by counting votes. President Trump, his senior government advisors, and Republican legislators collaborated to have the 2020 presidential election decided instead by incumbent politicians running in the very same election. Their attempts to suppress entire state-certified vote counts without adjudication in the courts and using a disinformation campaign of lies and conspiracy theories was a months-long, multifarious attempted coup.
Cruz was among the Republican legislators who participated in the attempted coup. In the days leading up to January 6, 2021’s congressional certification of the election, Cruz announced his intent to object to the inclusion of some states from the certification, which would have disenfranchised millions of voters and amplified lies, conspiracy theories, and preposterous legal theories about purported fraud. On January 6, 2021 in the hours after the violent insurrection at the Capitol, Cruz voted to reject the state-certified election results of Arizona and/or Pennsylvania (states narrowly won by Democrats), which could have changed the outcome of the election. These legislators have generally changed their story after their vote, claiming it was merely a protest and not intended to change the outcome of the election as they clearly sought prior to the vote. The January 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the Capitol, led on the front lines by militant white supremacy groups, attempted to prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office by disrupting Congress’s count of electors.
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2022 Report Card for Cruz.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Cruz is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Cruz has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to May 18, 2023. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Ted Cruz sits on the following committees:
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Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Ranking Member
Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation, Communications, Media, and Broadband, Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, Oceans, Fisheries, Climate Change, and Manufacturing, Space and Science, Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight, and Ports, Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion subcommittees
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Senate Committee on the Judiciary
- the Constitution subcommittee Ranking Member
- Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
- Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
Enacted Legislation
Cruz was the primary sponsor of 15 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 4411 (117th): A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 5302 Galveston Road in Houston, Texas, as the “Vanessa Guillen Post Office Building”.
- S. 5053 (117th): A bill to provide for the meaningful participation of Taiwan in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
- S. 4779 (117th): ISS Extension Act of 2022
- S. 2611 (117th): A bill to designate high priority corridors on the National Highway System, and for other purposes.
- S. 4744 (116th): Republic of Texas Legation Memorial Act
- S. 1441 (116th): Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act of 2019
- S. 1635 (116th): A bill to designate the community-based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Odessa, Texas, as the “Wilson and Young Medal of Honor VA Clinic”.
Does 15 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Cruz sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
International Affairs (30%) Taxation (18%) Health (16%) Education (8%) Finance and Financial Sector (8%) Government Operations and Politics (7%) Transportation and Public Works (6%) Science, Technology, Communications (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Cruz recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 1694: A bill to abolish the Federal Insurance Office of the Department of the …
- S. 1712: A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide …
- S. 1641: A bill to require the Comptroller General of the United States to submit …
- S. 1428: A bill to require a report on efforts by Venezuelan state actors and …
- S. 1363: Repeal CFPB Act
- S. 1303: TICKET Act
- S. 1280: TRANQ Research Act of 2023
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2013 to May 2023, Cruz missed 346 of 3,553 roll call votes, which is 9.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.3% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
