Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said one of the worst consequences of the Democrat wave that crashed across the country on Election Day was Texas turning into a "blue state,"
leaving him as the last state-wide elected Republican official standing.
Democrats flipped Republican-held offices across the Lone Star State, taking out Governor Greg Abbott and defeating Attorney General Ken Paxton in the race to replace outgoing Senator John Cornyn. Cruz described the results as a "blue tsunami" and an "a** kicking."
"Nowhere are the consequences of this election greater than Texas. In the Lone Star State, we lost every single statewide election. For weeks, I had been publicly warning on this podcast that we were in very real danger of losing everything in Texas," Cruz wrote on X on Wednesday. "Far too few believed that was possible. I am very, very sorry that it came to pass. Texas has not had a Democrat governor since 1994. We haven't had a Democrat senator since 1993. Now we'll have both."
"Texas is blue. That is a hard sentence to utter. But Texas, today at least, is blue. As we sit here today, I am the only statewide elected Republican who remains in Texas. That's not something I ever thought I would say," Cruz added. "The communists and the Islamists who have taken over the Democrat Party have now taken over the United States Congress. They will be unleashed. Sadly, that means many Americans will be hurt. Texans will be hurt."
Cruz, who survived a competitive challenge in 2018 during a much smaller blue wave election, said it was anger over the cost of living that sank Republicans across the country from South Carolina to Kansas.
"The top issue, cost of living, is very real. Too many in politics dismissed it. They didn't understand," Cruz said. "That is very real pain from real Americans, and too many Republican politicians seem like they didn't understand or they didn't care. Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high."
The Texas Republican pointed to polling from Kansas, where a Democrat won a Senate race for the first time since the 1930s, showing the top three issues for voters were the cost of living, corruption, and the cost of the Iran war.
Cruz noted that many traditional Republican voters ended up voting Democrat this cycle.
"When all the votes were counted, the problem wasn't turnout. Instead, our voters, Republicans, Libertarians, independents, showed up and voted, and rejected our candidates, voting Democrat instead," he said.
To respond to the blowout, Cruz said Republicans needed to fight Democrat madness and start "getting behind policies that directly benefit the constituents we lost." He also said Republicans need to win back support from young people and rural people.
After the results started pouring in, Republican officials and commentators quickly started analyzing the poor outcome with many pointing to the war in Iran, including Vice President JD Vance.
"The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night," Vance said. "If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest."
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis blamed Republicans for doing little with their control of the presidency and Congress.
"This midterm, no question, was a rebuke of the president and the Congress by Democrats and independents and Republicans who crossed over, but a lot of our voters who stayed home, they stayed home because they were frustrated with the lack of productivity of Republicans in the House and the Senate," DeSantis said.
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