‘Political bomb-throwing’: Ted Cruz suggests JD Vance is ‘insecure’ as the veep suggests Cruz is running for president

Vice President JD Vance and Sen. Ted Cruz are now trading public remarks about who is, and who is not, already running for president in 2028. Vance said Thursday that Cruz’s current posture makes a White House bid plain to see. Cruz answered Saturday by tying those remarks to insecurity and to what he called political bomb-throwing.

The back-and-forth surfaced in two separate interviews. Vance spoke with NBC News, and Cruz later spoke by phone with POLITICO. Both men are treated as possible contenders for the next Republican presidential nomination, and both said their immediate priority is electing other Republicans.

Cruz did not deny interest in a future race, but he said the next 30 days belong to the midterms. “In my experience, people engage in political bomb-throwing when they’re feeling insecure,” he told POLITICO. “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.”

Vance’s NBC remarks and Cruz’s record of campaign stops

Vance’s comment came during the Thursday NBC News interview. He drew a line between Cruz’s activity and his own. “It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president,” Vance said. 

“At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing. It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president,” Vance said.

Vance is widely viewed as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Cruz has pushed back on the idea that the nomination is already settled. He has also left the door open to his own bid. “I’ll certainly be part of the discussion,” he told MS NOW in August.

In the Saturday interview, Cruz framed his schedule as proof that the midterms come first. He said he has already campaigned with Republican candidates in Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Texas. He added that more trips are set this month in Alaska, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

He also cast this year’s travel as a continuation of earlier cycles, not a new turn toward 2028. “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 said. He said the goal is helping Republicans hold both chambers of Congress.

Cruz then named people he said he has boosted in past races, including former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and U.S. House candidate Karoline Leavitt. He put Vance on that same list. Cruz’s history of backing Vance now sits against a 2028 backdrop in which Trump has publicly kept the race open but reportedly told donors privately to back Vance.

“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],” Cruz said. “I was very glad he won that race. I was very glad to help him,” he also said.