Ted for Trump: Ted Cruz endorses Donald Trump’s presidential campaign
Sep 23, 2016, 12:38 PM | Updated: 12:57 pm
(AP Photos)
Former Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz endorsed the party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, on Friday.
The Texas senator announced the endorsement in a long post on his Facebook page.
“I’ve made this decision for two reasons,” the post read. “First, last year, I promised to support the Republican nominee. And I intend to keep my word.
“Second, even though I have had areas of significant disagreement with our nominee, by any measure (Democratic nominee) Hillary Clinton is wholly unacceptable — that’s why I have always been #NeverHillary.”
Cruz said six policy decisions also influenced his decision — the selection of Supreme Court nominees, Obamcare, energy, immigration, national security and internet freedom. He said he feels Trump is a better choice in those fields than Clinton.
“Our country is in crisis,” Cruz wrote. “Clinton is manifestly unfit to be president, and her policies would harm millions of Americans. And Donald Trump is the only thing standing in her way.”
Friday’s announcement marks a 180-degree turn for Cruz, who said in July that he couldn’t endorse Trump at the convention because of Trump’s attacks on his family.
“I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,” he said at a breakfast for the Texas delegation. “And that pledge was not a blanket commitment that, if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I’m going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say ‘Thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father.’”
Trump attacked Cruz’s family several times earlier this year, prompting the Texas senator to label Trump a “pathological liar.”
“This man is a pathological liar. He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies,” Cruz said at a March press conference. “He lies — practically every word that comes out of his mouth.”
Cruz said his convention speech, in which he encouraged supporters to vote with their conscience, was designed to lay out his thoughts on the party, not Trump.
“What I wanted to do … was lay out the principles I believe we should stand for as Republicans,” he said.
Cruz ended his own presidential campaign in early May after losing the Indiana primary to Trump, despite fellow candidate John Kasich yielding the state to Cruz.
KTAR’s Carter Nacke contributed to this report.