Cruz returns to Senate, with hints at 2020 bid

By David Weigel May 10 at 5:39 PM

One week after his campaign for president ended, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) returned to the Senate unready to endorse Donald Trump — and very ready to talk about the next election.

“This battle is about a lot more than one election cycle or one candidate,” Cruz said. “It is about principles that are eternal.”

Pressed on whether he could now back Trump, fulfilling a pledge every candidate had made to back the party’s nominee, Cruz passed on several chances to say yes.

“There will be plenty of time for voters to make the determination of what they will support,” said Cruz. “What I am going to be supporting are free market principles and the constitutional liberties of Americans.”

It was a swaggering and occasionally snarky performance, with several jokes about “the warm embrace of Washington,” before a media scrum that filled the hallway outside Cruz’s Senate office. Like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who quit the race in March, Cruz skipped the reporter-clogged Senate lunches to reintroduce himself on his own terms. Unlike Rubio, he was about to face colleagues who’d resented his elbow-throwing approach and were full of advice about how to fit in.

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