Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) received high praise from a prominent Florida Republican after working to pass a resolution condemning Hamas for using human shields.
“The unwritten truth about Ted Cruz is that ‘yes,’ people see him as someone who is really shaking things up against the establishment, wanting to get more grassroots, but they don’t know how successful he is as a legislator,” Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen told Shark Tank, adding that she’s “proud to call him my friend.”
Ros-Lehtinen noted that Cruz worked with the “very liberal” Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) to get the resolution through the Senate.
“Ted Cruz actually is able to make the Senate work in a more efficient way and that doesn’t get the play in the press,” she said. “Why? Because they want to look on him as a bomb-thrower, a trouble-maker, somebody who doesn’t work within the system.”
Ros-Lehtinen’s comments might have some interesting 2016 implications. In the near term, she’s helping Cruz burnish his foreign policy credentials, especially for voters in the battleground state of Florida. It would be even more helpful to him if their friendship were to grow into an endorsement in the Republican presidential primary, especially if Florida Senator Marco Rubio or former Florida Governor Jeb Bush runs.
In April, Ros-Lehtinen said she would back Jeb Bush if he decides to run for president.
“I’m with him,” she said of Bush.