Kudlow to Cruz: ‘You might want to think’ about announcing presidential bid in November

Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Tuesday told Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that he “might want to think” about launching a bid for the presidency in November.

Kudlow asked the Texas senator about whether or not he will run for the Republican nomination for president in 2028 in an appearance on the host’s show.

“So, what I will say is there will be plenty of time to have that conversation after the midterms,” Cruz answered. “We’re less than 60 days out from the midterms, so my focus –– if we lose the House and Senate, all the legislative progress we have grinds to a halt, and it is two years of warfare against President Trump and his agenda.”

Kudlow noted how Trump declared his candidacy right after the 2022 midterms and credited that to his success in 2024.

“I’m just putting it out there,” he said. “You might want to think about it. I mean, right after he did that, a lot of people scratched their heads, and it turns out that was a close outbid. It really was.”

Cruz previously ran for president in 2016 and at one point was seen as a front-runner. He won 11 state contests, including the Iowa caucuses, before suspending his campaign as Trump built a large delegate lead.

The Texan eventually backed President Trump in the general election, though he did not endorse him at the GOP’s convention in Cleveland that summer, and was then booed by Trump supporters .

At the time, Cruz reportedly told allies that he thought there was something “fundamentally wrong” with evangelical voters backing Trump. Then-candidate Trump threatened to “ spill the beans ” on Cruz’s wife, Heidi Cruz, and reposted an unflattering photo of her compared with one of first lady Melania Trump, and he claimed there was “ voter fraud ” in his loss to Cruz in Iowa.

The Texas senator is seen as a Republican contender for president in 2028 and has said the GOP has not coalesced around Vice President Vance as the party’s presidential nominee.

“There’s going to be a full discussion about who we are and what we believe,” Cruz told MS NOW’s Ali Vitali late last month when asked if the party has settled on Vance.

Cruz added that the GOP was in “the midst of a debate about who our party is,” noting that there will be “time to figure” out his role in that future.

Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who ran against Cruz and Trump in 2016, are seen as favorites to possibly succeed Trump. Neither has said publicly whether they will run in 2028, but both of their names are mentioned as potential GOP contenders.

A recent Emerson College poll showed Rubio outperforming Vance in multiple hypothetical 2028 presidential match-ups against Democratic candidates.