Cruz’s doomed candidacy, Joaquin Castro’s bright future

Democrats are rejoicing and the major media are breathing heavy with the exciting news that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has formally announced his candidacy for president. Democrats are rejoicing because Hillary Clinton could carry 48 to 50 states, possibly including Texas, in a match-up against the GOP’s leading champion of government shutdowns, rightist policies that voters do not favor and negative politics that most voters loathe.

{mosads}Waiting in the wings to shape the future of Texas is Rep. Joaquin Castro (D), whom in a recent column I called a rising star in the House of Representatives. Unlike Cruz, who is widely disliked by Republican as well as Democratic colleagues in the Senate, Castro is widely respected in the House and has begun his rise in the ranks of young Democratic leaders.

Texas Democratic insiders widely believe, and I agree, that Castro is poised to make a run for the Texas Senate seat when Cruz’s current term ends. Cruz will be defeated in the GOP battle for the presidential nomination, though I urge all Republicans to support him because I would be delighted for him to lose in a landslide debacle to Clinton.

My guess is that Cruz probably does not run for reelection to the Senate after losing in the presidential campaign. He knows that he is widely disrespected on both sides of the aisle in the Senate, and can deliver little for Texans, and he knows that Castro and other Texas Democrats are chomping at the bit to run a triumphant campaign against him.

My guess, as well, is that Joaquin Castro will have the choice of rising even further in the Democratic leadership of the House or being elected to the United State Senate to succeed the loud but ineffective right-wing bloviator who announced his doomed candidacy to be commander in chief today.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.