Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called Vice President JD Vance "insecure" after Vance said Cruz is already running for president in 2028, as both claim midterm focus.
Cruz pushed back hard in a Saturday interview after the vice president suggested the Texas Republican is more focused on a future White House bid than the coming elections.
The New York Post reported the exchange as both men insisted they are locked on helping Republicans win on Nov. 3, even as 2028 talk spilled into public view.
Vance set the latest round off last week. In an NBC News interview, he made his view plain.
Vance told NBC News:
"It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president."
He added:
"At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing."
Cruz answered that charge directly when he sat down with Politico on Saturday. The 55-year-old senator did not soften the reply.
Cruz said:
"In my experience, people engage in political bomb-throwing when they’re feeling insecure."
He continued:
"So he’s welcome to make whatever comments he likes. I’m going to keep focusing on the midterms and helping us win on Election Day in the next 30 days."
Cruz framed his record as proof he is not sitting out the fights that matter now. He told Politico he has put more miles in for the party’s candidates than anyone else in the GOP.
Cruz said:
"Over the last 10 years, there’s no Republican in the country who has campaigned for more Senate candidates, more House candidates, more gubernatorial candidates than I have, and this year will be no exception."
He also reminded listeners of an earlier chapter with Vance himself. In 2022, Cruz spent a full day on the road with Vance during the Ohio Senate race.
Cruz told Politico:
"Indeed, ironically, I spent a full day on the road with JD Vance, campaigning with him when he was running for Senate in Ohio [in 2022]. I was very glad he won that race. I was very glad to help him."
That history undercuts any claim the two men have always been rivals. It also puts the current barbs in a sharper light: one former running mate now needling the other over timing and ambition while midterms sit weeks away.
Cruz has not ruled himself out of the next presidential cycle. Back in August he told MS NOW he would “certainly be part of the discussion” in 2028 and suggested Vance does not hold a lock on the nomination.
Vance is widely viewed as the early 2028 frontrunner. Cruz finished second to President Trump in the bitter 2016 primary and has spent the years since recalibrating inside a party still shaped by that fight.
The Texas seat itself is in play this cycle. Cruz’s home state faces a tough Senate race on Nov. 3, giving him a concrete reason to keep the focus local and immediate rather than on a contest three years out.
The Post contacted Vance’s team for further comment on the latest exchange.
Earlier friction also hangs in the background. Cruz sat for a fiery clash with Tucker Carlson in June of last year. Carlson, long chummy with Vance, has turned on Trump in recent stretches, adding another layer to the personalities now circling the same 2028 conversation.
For now both men say the same thing out loud: elect Republicans first. Cruz says he is living that priority. Vance says he is doing the same. The public jabs show how fast 2028 talk can crowd out the calendar that actually arrives in 30 days.
Voters watching the midterms want candidates who close ranks and win seats, not early auditions that turn running mates into sparring partners.
