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Sen. Ted Cruz

Senator for Texas

pronounced ted // krooz

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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.

Cruz is among the Republican legislators who, by calling for entire states to be disenfranchised in the 2020 presidential election, fomented the terrorist attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 that aimed to prevent the determination of the next president of the United States. In the days leading up to January 6, Cruz had announced his intent to object on that day to the inclusion of some states in the count of electors that determines the next president, disenfranchising millions of voters based on lies, conspiracy theories, and preposterous legal theories all falsely claiming various sorts of mass fraud that did not occur. The announcement amplified the message that inspired the attack on the Capitol. On January 6, 2021 in the hours after the attack on the Capitol, Cruz voted for the exclusion of Arizona and/or Pennsylvania — states narrowly won by Democrats — from the count of Electoral College votes that determined the next President of the United States.
Photo of Sen. Ted Cruz [R-TX]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2020 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, 2017 to Mar 4, 2021. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

The Club for Growth: 90% United States Chamber of Commerce: 78% The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: C American Civil Liberties Union: 23% League of Conservation Voters: 4% Human Rights Campaign: 0% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 0%

Committee Membership

Ted Cruz sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Cruz was the primary sponsor of 10 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 10 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 (34%) Taxation (18%) Health (13%) Science, Technology, Communications (11%) Government Operations and Politics (7%) Environmental Protection (6%) Finance and Financial Sector (6%) Education (5%)

Recent Bills

Some of Cruz’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Cruz voted Nay

Conference Report Agreed to 83/16 on Feb 14, 2019.
This bill, in its final form, funded the parts of the federal government whose funding was to lapse on February 15, 2019. On December 22, ...

Cruz voted Nay

Bill Passed 72/26 on Sep 28, 2016.
The Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (H.R. 5325) is an appropriations ...

Cruz voted Nay

Conference Report Agreed to 83/16 on Dec 3, 2015.
H.R 22, formerly the Hire More Heroes Act, has become the Senate’s vehicle for passage of the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the ...

Cruz voted Nay

Joint Resolution Passed 78/22 on Sep 18, 2014.

Cruz voted Nay

Bill Passed 97/2 on Sep 19, 2013.

Missed Votes

From Jan 2013 to Mar 2021, Cruz missed 276 of 2,551 roll call votes, which is 10.8%. This is much worse than the median of 1.5% 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 and major life events.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: