committee assignments ted cruz

  Sen. Ted Cruz

Senator for Texas

pronounced ted // krooz

Cruz is the junior senator from Texas and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Cruz is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 53 years old.

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Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Cruz .

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Cruz is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Cruz has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Aug 1, 2024. See full analysis methodology .

Committee Membership

Ted Cruz sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Ranking Member Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation , Communications, Media, and Broadband , Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security , Oceans, Fisheries, Climate Change, and Manufacturing , Space and Science , Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight, and Ports , Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion subcommittees
• the Constitution subcommittee Ranking Member
• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism , State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development , Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Rules and Administration

Enacted Legislation

Cruz was the primary sponsor of 17 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 992: I-27 Numbering Act of 2023
• S. 1280: TRANQ Research Act of 2023
• S. 4411 (117th): A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 5302 Galveston Road in Houston, Texas, as the “Vanessa Guillen Post Office Building”.
• S. 5053 (117th): A bill to provide for the meaningful participation of Taiwan in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
• S. 4779 (117th): ISS Extension Act of 2022
• S. 2611 (117th): A bill to designate high priority corridors on the National Highway System, and for other purposes.
• S. 4744 (116th): Republic of Texas Legation Memorial Act

View All »

Does 17 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110 th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue areas.

Cruz sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (30%) Taxation (16%) Health (15%) Government Operations and Politics (10%) Finance and Financial Sector (8%) Transportation and Public Works (8%) Immigration (7%) Education (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Cruz recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 4893: A bill to require online service providers to disclose their acceptable use policies, …
• S.J.Res. 104: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, …
• S. 4846: A bill to provide for referral of denied applicants to the Service Academies …
• S. 4822: A bill to ensure that parents are aware of foreign influence in their …
• S. 4806: A bill to exclude certain amounts relating to compensating victims of the Texas …
• S. 4754: A bill to terminate the obligation to repay bonuses of former members of …
• S.J.Res. 102: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, …

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Cruz voted nay, cruz voted yea, missed votes.

From Jan 2013 to Aug 2024, Cruz missed 385 of 3,997 roll call votes, which is 9.6%. This is much worse than the median of 3.0% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

• unitedstates/congress-legislators , a community project gathering congressional information
• The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
• Office of Sen. Cruz for the photo
• GovInfo.gov , for sponsored bills

Pronunciation Guide

Ted Cruz is pronounced:

ted // krooz

The letters stand for sounds according to the following table:

Capital letters indicate a stressed syllable.

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• Veterans' Affairs [1]

• 2024 elections

Four candidates running for U.S. Senate in Texas

Incumbent Ted Cruz (R), Colin Allred (D), Ted Brown (L), and Tracy Andrus (D) (Write-In) are running in the U.S. Senate race in Texas on November 5, 2024.

In 2018 , Cruz defeated Beto O’Rourke (D) 50.9% to 48.3%. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee identified Texas and Florida’s Senate elections as their top two pickup opportunities in 2024. Inside Election’s Nathan Gonzalez said, “Texas is the only Republican seat that we have not graded as solid Republican. Right now, we think Democrats have a better chance in Texas than they do in Florida, but both are still difficult races.”

Cruz called himself the biggest target from Democrats behind Donald Trump (R) and said, “Texas is a battlefield. It’s easy to be complacent. One of the real mistakes people make in politics is they have a recency bias. They say well, whatever things have been recently, that’s what it’s going to be forever.”

Cruz was first elected to the Senate in 2012 and served as the Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 to 2008. Before holding elected office, he was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist , associate deputy attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, and director of the Office of Policy Planning for the Federal Trade Commission.

Allred was elected to the U.S. House in 2018. Before holding public office, he played football for the Tennessee Titans, was a civil rights lawyer, and worked in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration.

Both candidates are campaigning on immigration. The Texas Tribune’s Jasper Sherer wrote, “Allred is running campaign ads that tout headlines about him breaking with his party to condemn Biden, while Cruz laced into the president’s policies in a lively speech at the Republican National Convention Tuesday, blaming Biden for several recent high-profile murders allegedly committed by immigrants who entered the country illegally. The border-centric campaigns are a nod to public opinion polls that have repeatedly shown Texas voters ranking immigration and the border as their most pressing issues.”

In an email to the Tribune , Cruz pointed to his record: “Over the past decade I’ve repeatedly authored and introduced strong border legislation, and Democrats like Allred have repeatedly refused to agree to anything that would actually secure the border.”

Allred said: “One of my biggest frustrations with Sen. Cruz is that he’s had 12 years to try and enact any kind of reform — whether it’s comprehensive or even just targeted — to try and help us do something about what’s been happening at the border. And he has, every single time, refused.”

Based on second-quarter reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Cruz raised $59.2 million and spent $46.6 million and Allred raised $38.4 million and spent $28.0 million. To review all the campaign finance figures in full detail, click here . According to reports filed in 2018, Cruz raised $23.7 million and spent $15.2 million, and O’Rourke raised $23.8 million and spent $10.1 million as of the same point in that election cycle. To review all 2018 campaign finance figures, click here .

Allred, Brown, and Andrus completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey . To read their responses, click here .

The outcome of this race will affect the partisan balance of the U.S. Senate in 2025. Thirty-four of 100 seats are up for election, including one special election. Of the seats up for election in 2024, Democrats hold 19, Republicans hold 11, and independents hold four. As of May 2024, eight members of the U.S. Senate had announced they were not running for re-election .

Legislative Profiles of Ted Cruz: Committee Assignments,

• Political Science

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Kamala Harris cuts Donald Trump’s lead in Texas in half with Ted Cruz in tight race for Senate

Democrat is also leading trump in national polls, article bookmarked.

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A new poll shows Kamala Harris has halved Donald Trump ’s lead in Texas , a state widely expected to vote Republican come November.

Harris has cut Trump’s lead to just under five points, according to a survey from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University released Thursday. Their last survey, recorded June 20 to July 1, had Trump with a nine-point lead over President Joe Biden .

These numbers are consistent with national polling. Harris has a 3.3-point lead over the former president, an average of major national polls shows . A recent New York Times /Siena College poll also showed Harris holding a four-point lead in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin .

Chauncey McLean, president of Future Forward USA, one of the largest super political action committees backing Harris, said on Wednesday the campaign’s internal polling is much less optimistic .

“We have it tight as a tick, and pretty much across the board,” McLean said.

“Since the vice-president became the nominee, we talked to 375,000 Americans,” McLean continued. “What you see in the public polls – you know, a large public poll is [only] 1,000 surveys.”

The same Texas survey shows Senator Ted Cruz just 2.1 points ahead of his competitor, Representative Colin Allred. The June-July survey showed Cruz and Allred in a similarly tight competition.

Allred was set to speak at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night ahead of Harris as he attempts to garner support in the race against Cruz. The incumbent Republican has held his senate seat since 2013.

The lead between Harris and Trump could shift in the coming days as independent candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr reportedly prepares to drop out of the presidential race.

While it’s unclear exactly which candidate Kennedy voters will turn to – if they vote at all – his supporters in swing states could have the ability to turn the tides in this close race .

Kennedy is expected to endorse Donald Trump following mounting pressure from Donald Trump Jr and former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson pressured him to drop from the race, a report revealed on Thursday.

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Texas took center stage at the Democratic National Convention, but don’t call it a battleground state

Several Texans took the DNC stage to blast Republican policies and reach out to a younger generation. But the Harris campaign still doesn’t view Texas as a major target.

Sign up for The Brief , The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

CHICAGO — Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett elicited guffaws and jeers with her Donald Trump zingers. Uvalde mother Kimberly Mata-Rubio silenced the 20,000-person convention center with the sobering retelling of the day she lost her daughter to gun violence at Robb Elementary. Houston activist Olivia Julianna hyped up a group of Gen Z voters. Country music group, The Chicks, sang the national anthem.

Texans were all over the Democratic National Convention.

Nationally, leaders were sending a signal that the bench of future Democratic stars runs deep in Texas as they highlighted up and coming lawmakers like Crockett and U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who is running in a tight race to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Texans who have made news for tragedy, like Mata-Rubio, were also featured on the mainstage as a cautionary tale to Democrats’ most reviled Republican policies that could be amplified under another Trump presidency.

But despite the frequent use of Texans as messengers, there is little money to go with it.

The Harris campaign confirmed this week that in its view, Texas is not a battleground, and national dollars will be prioritized toward winning in swing states.

“At the end of the day, our responsibility as a presidential campaign is to ensure we get to 270 [electoral votes],” Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said at a DNC event on Tuesday. “I would love to get to a bigger number than that, but that is all we care about."

It’s a tough pill to swallow for many of the state’s Democratic faithful.

“There is Monopoly money being spent in Florida, and they're getting red and more red and more red. They're going the wrong way,” Texas House Democratic caucus chair Trey Martinez Fischer told delegates during a delegation breakfast. “As population decreases in the Midwest continue and as states like Florida get crazier, the only place you can go for the future of the national party is Texas. When people say we're not in play … you say bullshit.”

The prominence of Texans at the convention stood in contrast to 2020, when Texans were largely left off the agenda to the vocal frustration of many of the state’s prominent Democrats. The convention was scaled back that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That year there was no speaking slot for Beto O’Rourke, despite his near miss of unseating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz two years prior and running his own presidential campaign that year. There was no spot for Julián Castro, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development and another 2020 presidential hopeful who had been a main stage speaker in 2016. Nor was space reserved for Wendy Davis, a darling of Texas whose 2013 filibuster against Republican abortion legislation and 2014 gubernatorial race made her a celebrity at the 2016 convention .

This year, a total of 11 Texans spoke on the mainstage, most of them new to the national spotlight.

Allred, who has strategically held Harris’ campaign at an arm’s length as he courts the center, offered his support of Harris on the mainstage, while spending most of his speech blasting Republicans, eliciting chants of “Beat Ted Cruz.” Allred was one of the few Texans who was also invited to speak in the 2020 convention.

“Texas is a young, dynamic, diverse state. We are growing incredibly rapidly. We have so much potential,” Allred said in an interview. “The story of Texas is going to be written by these young folks, and I think that it's going to be one about restoring Texas freedoms and giving the country a glimpse into who we really are.”

Crockett, a first-term member of Congress, was one of the first Texans to take the stage Monday night, delivering on her trademark wisecracks . Crockett has broken out on social media for her high-profile confrontations with Republicans during committee meetings.

“Kamala Harris has a résumé. Donald Trump has a rap sheet,” Crockett said to loud applause.

State Rep. Julie Johnson of Farmers Branch, who is running to replace Allred in Congress, said in an interview that it was exciting to see “that the torch has been passed.” Johnson previously voiced disappointment that more Texans weren’t on the 2020 convention program.

“We have a very talented bench of people running for office in the state of Texas at every level of government,” she said. “And I think it's wonderful that that youth, that energy, that vision is given a chance to rise and shine.”

In another nod to Texans influence, its influencers were given coveted mainstage speaking spots. Julianna and Carlos Eduardo Espina, who runs a Spanish-language TikTok account with over 10 million followers, were both given primetime slots where they urged younger voters to turn out.

“We can only be heard if we vote,” Julianna said from the convention floor. “As the saying goes, if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. So Gen Z, let’s take our seat in our democracy and cast our ballots for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”

Texans impacted by the state’s strict abortion laws and loose gun controls also shared their stories to a national audience. They were a foil to the hope and promise of Democratic policy priorities. For a campaign that has a rallying cry of “not going back,” Texas represented the consequences of going back.

Amanda Zurawski, who sued Texas after her doctors refused to end her nonviable and dangerous pregnancy due to the state’s abortion laws, delivered a speech with her husband, Josh, as part of a joint address on abortion restrictions across the country. Abortion is one of Democrats’ leading policy areas against Republicans; they credit the issue for their ability to keep control of the Senate in 2022. Mata-Rubio, whose daughter Lexi was killed in the Robb Elementary Shooting, spoke with others impacted by gun violence on the main stage Thursday.

“Every time I share our story, my heart breaks,” Zurawski said. “For the baby girl we wanted desperately. For the doctors and nurses who couldn’t help me deliver her safely. For Josh, who feared he would lose me, too. But I was lucky. I lived.”

Both Zurawski and Mata-Rubio have been galvanized to politics after their experiences. Zurawski travels the country as a Harris campaign surrogate. Mata-Rubio ran for mayor of Uvalde last year, losing to former mayor Cody Smith.

“Texas has become ground zero for a lot of these really extreme laws that Republicans have prioritized in other places,” Julianna said in an interview. “When you have these people able to come address the country and say, ‘Hey, we know what you're going through, because we're dealing with it at home, and we're not giving up, so you shouldn't give up either,’ — I think that that sends a really strong message.”

But several of the state’s Democrats said at the convention that they were frustrated that they continue to not be viewed as a viable battleground worthy of investment from national party groups — even as they find Texans’ stories compelling enough to broadcast to the country.

“We have had a lot of success in getting young voters to mobilize,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, Texas Democratic Party chair. “But you’ve got to put your money where your mouth is. You've got to want the party to get young people involved and motivated and working. Not just voting, but working.”

National Democratic organizations are investing heavily in some down ballot races in the state. South Texas remains a battleground for the U.S. House, particularly the 15th Congressional District, where Democrat Michelle Vallejo is challenging U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also identified Texas as one of its top flip targets this year along with Florida.

But with the exception of the South Texas House races, the investments pale in comparison to spending in other states. Texas is a flip target largely because no Senate Republican incumbents in swing states are up for reelection this year. Meanwhile, Democrats need to defend exceedingly challenging seats, including in Montana and Ohio.

On the presidential level, the Harris campaign is focusing all its attention on winning the most attainable states to secure the minimum number of electoral votes to win. Texas simply does not reach that cutoff when states like Nevada, Pennsylvania and Ohio are on the line.

“I do consider us a battleground state, but for the purposes of getting to 270, there are states that are obviously far more critical in terms of achieving that goal,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat who serves as a Harris campaign co-chair.

Texas Democrats assert that the state party has proven itself just short of victory if only it had a little help. Democrats came within 3 points of winning in the 2018 Senate race. The state closed the gap with Republicans from nearly 15 points in 2012 to over 9 points in 2016 to 5 points in 2020.

“What we tell them is that, hey, we've done this by ourselves,” Hinojosa said. “We haven't gotten any help from y’all. But we can't get past the point that we need to get until the national party makes a decision to invest in Texas, and they have not.”

Hinojosa adds that he’s a “team player” and acknowledges that the presidential campaign needs to focus on its strategy to win against a candidate Democrats view as a threat to democracy. Still, he and several down ballot Texans feel the sting from years of neglect.

“The challenge of presidential campaigns is that they're always trying to win this campaign,” U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, said in an interview. “They're not trying to make sure they win the campaign four years down the road.”

Still, he conceded that having prominent Texas representation on the convention stage was a good start and optimistic signal that others may soon take the state more seriously.

“The DNC has done a good job of recognizing we need to elevate young leaders from Texas who are in it for the long haul,” Casar said, “Just as Republicans worked for decades to cement their control of the state, I think the flip to blue is going to take long-term commitment from new and rising young leaders.”

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Information about the authors

Matthew Choi

Washington correspondent.

[email protected]

@matthewichoi

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Politics Colin Allred Greg Casar Jasmine Felicia Crockett Julie Johnson