This election cycle isn’t even up yet and already we are hearing that Rick Perry is pushing Michael McCaul to challenge Ted Cruz for the Senate in 2016:
TEXAS TRIBUNE – Late this summer, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry strongly encouraged U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul to challenge U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s re-election bid in 2018, according to GOP sources.
The encouragement, which was relayed to The Texas Tribune by two Republican sources familiar with the correspondence, came around the same time that McCaul, an Austin Republican, emerged as a top potential challenger to Cruz’s re-election efforts, amid an outcry among many grassroots conservatives over Cruz’s decision not to endorse presidential nominee Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention.
A Perry spokesman wouldn’t say whether the former governor made such overtures to McCaul, instead praising the six-term member of Congress.
“Rick Perry holds Michael McCaul in the highest esteem,” Perry spokesman Stan Gerdes wrote in an email.
A spokesman for McCaul declined to comment.
Last week, McCaul publicly criticized Cruz, but declined to say whether he would vie to unseat him.
“I think he’s spent a lot of time since Day One running for president,” McCaul said in an interview with The Texas Tribune in Austin on Tuesday. “I think we deserve somebody in the Senate who is going to be representing the interests of the state of Texas.”
A spokesperson for Cruz declined to comment. The senator has previously said he’s not taking his re-election for granted, but he has not directly commented on a potential McCaul challenge.
McCaul is another go-along Republican. He’s no Bridenstine nor Huelskamp, which makes him the perfect Republican for Senate leadership to get behind in a Cruz challenge.
Perry has a lot going for him, but this Trump vendetta he’s got against Cruz is ridiculous, especially considering he endorsed Cruz over Trump back in January!