Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in Tampa, Florida in July 2021 (Gage Skidmore)
Ted Cruz is probably running for president. It's a headline that is so unsurprising that even CNN found it amusing.
Reporting on Thursday, hosts made it clear that "many of the signs are there" that he's likely to run in 2028, setting up the intra-party battle between Vice President JD Vance and Cruz.
Cruz, who ran in 2016, has spent the subsequent years promoting himself on his own podcast was the butt of the joke for Vance when he was speaking to Megyn Kelly.
"Well, I think committed, non-interventionist, America First Ted Cruz could be a representative for that wing of the party," Vance said.
It isn't shocking after Cruz was caught trashing Vance and President Donald Trump in a secret recording reported in January.
Cruz was infamously referred to by the late Sen. Bob Dole (R-Ks.) as someone "nobody likes." Ironically, Dole also remarked that he thought Donald Trump could likely get legislation passed because he's a "dealmaker."
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) famously wrote in his book, "I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was forced to apologize publicly after he quipped in 2017, "If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you."
Even former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who didn't even serve in the U.S. Senate with Cruz, said, "I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life."
Democracy Docket went so far as to refer to Cruz as the "most hated man in Washington."
CNN reporter Steve Contorno explained on Thursday that Cruz's calendar is peppered with trips to states that have early primaries and caucuses. He's there to help fellow Republicans up for elections in 2026, but they're in states like Iowa and South Carolina.
Bob Vander Plaats, an Iowa Republican and co-chair of Cruz's 2016 campaign, said, "I'd be shocked if he doesn't run" in 2028.
Contorno said he's been watching these candidates because the open question is what Trump will do when it comes to handing over what he considers to be his movement to someone else. In the past, Trump's "deference" has been Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Cruz is already setting himself apart from Vance by opposing the Iran War, while Vance has been carrying Trump's water over the war.
Contorno went so far as to call it an "unofficial kickoff to 2028" after Vance published a new book while Cruz was so publicly outspoken against the administration on Iran.