Ted Cruz Garners Key Endorsements in Texas Senate Race

Former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz picked up two key endorsements this past week in his bid for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in the Lone Star State.  Cruz is one of several high-profile GOP candidates seeking the seat of retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Cruz, the state’s first Hispanic solicitor general — a post he held from 2003 to 2008 — was endorsed by former U.S. House majority leader Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks PAC and by the powerful Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee boasting more than 55,000 members.

“Ted Cruz will fight for economic liberty and will be a stalwart defender of the U.S. Constitution,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola in a statement issued on Thursday.

Earlier in the week, FreedomWorks PAC president Matt Kibbe expressed similar sentiments in endorsing Cruz, describing the 40-year-old attorney as the best candidate to protect the interests of Texas taxpayers by “by advocating the principles of lower taxes, less government and more individual freedom.”

Several other Republicans are also seeking their party’s U.S. Senate nomination in that reliably red state, including Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, former Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, ex-Dallas mayor Tom Leppert and former Secretary State Roger Williams.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, regarded by many as an odds-on favorite to win his party’s nomination if he decides to take the plunge, is also reportedly considering entering the race.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded the coalition ground forces in Iraq, has announced he will seek the Democratic nomination.  Sanchez, 57, is expected to face at least token primary opposition from Democratic activist Sean Hubbard, a veteran of the 2008 Obama presidential campaign in Dallas and arguably the youngest-looking Senate candidate in the country.