How Dan Crenshaw’s feuds with Ted Cruz and MAGA threaten his political future

By Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju, Adam Cancryn, CNN

(CNN) — As GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Sen. Ted Cruz prepared to board the same flight from Houston to Washington in recent months, the two famously brash Republicans had a tense exchange that now looms large over Crenshaw’s battle for political survival.

Crenshaw accused Cruz of working against him in his House primary. According to three people with direct knowledge of their interaction, Cruz responded: “If I’m working against you, you’re gonna know it.”

This week, Cruz made it known.

The junior Texas senator endorsed Steve Toth, a Texas state representative and a former megachurch pastor who is facing Crenshaw in Tuesday’s Republican primary. And he taped an ad that a pro-Toth super PAC is now airing in the Houston area.

“You deserve an unwavering fighter, a Republican who walks the walk,” Cruz says in the ad, which doesn’t mention Crenshaw.

Crenshaw, the Navy SEAL who has rocketed to national fame for his confrontational style, has spent years fighting with “Make America Great Again” allies who see him as insufficiently loyal to President Donald Trump. Now, days before his primary, Crenshaw’s previously unreported feud with Cruz reflects how the congressman is facing major enemies in his already tough reelection bid.

Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the race, making Crenshaw the only House Republican from Texas not to get the president’s backing.

“He told me he would — it’s up to him, he doesn’t owe me anything,” Crenshaw told CNN.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, too, endorsed 27 House Republicans for Congress this cycle without backing Crenshaw. And now Cruz is backing Toth.

The nasty primary between Crenshaw and Toth has mostly been out of the public eye. But it’s been increasingly ringing alarm bells in Washington as GOP leaders now believe Crenshaw could lose or at least be forced into a May 26 runoff.

Crenshaw has succeeded in close primary fights before. But those were against poorly funded opponents who still came close to unseating him. (His opponent in 2024 raised less than $30,000 but won 40% of the vote.)

In an interview, Crenshaw predicted he would win reelection in the Houston suburbs seat, telling CNN: “I see myself winning.”

Inside Crenshaw’s feud with Cruz

Crenshaw’s allies note that Cruz had initially endorsed his opponent in 2018. But over the years, tensions rose between the two Republicans – partly, according to multiple Texas GOP sources, as some Cruz allies feared that Crenshaw was preparing a primary bid against the senator in 2024.

Crenshaw denied such ambitions in a fiery call with Cruz in 2021, according to two people with knowledge of the conversation. Cruz began the call by thanking Crenshaw for defending him publicly shortly after the January 6 violence at the Capitol, when Cruz was facing national backlash for fundraising off the riot, those people told CNN.

Ahead of Cruz’s 2024 reelection run, the senator’s team privately and repeatedly asked Crenshaw for an endorsement for his reelection bid, according to two people familiar with the exchange.

But the two Texans were unable to connect by phone at the time, those people said, and an endorsement never happened.

A spokesperson for Cruz’s campaign denied that the senator ever asked for Crenshaw’s endorsement but declined to offer further detail.

Cruz stayed out of Crenshaw’s primary until last week, after Crenshaw unloaded on a businessman who’s also a close Cruz ally and longtime donor. The same day, hours later, Crenshaw helped to tank Cruz’s single biggest legislative priority on the House floor, an air safety bill spurred by last year’s deadly plane crash in Washington.

Cruz was asked Thursday at the US Capitol why he backed Toth.

“I think his principles and values reflect the values of the voters in the district,” he said.

Why Crenshaw’s opponent sees opportunity

Toth is no stranger to competing against established incumbents; he challenged former Rep. Kevin Brady in 2016 for Texas’ 8th District.

This time around, he has questioned Crenshaw’s loyalty to Trump over the 2020 presidential election and support for Ukraine aid.

There’s another factor that has Toth and his allies even more confident they can win: Crenshaw is running in a newly drawn seat that includes thousands of new voters. And they argue that Toth, who’s represented much of the area in the Texas statehouse since 2019, will feel more like the incumbent to some in the district.

Crenshaw insists that voters will back him over Toth, who’s considered one of the most conservative Republicans in the legislature.

“I’m going up against a guy who’s got the worst possible voting record and we’ve just got to get that information out to people,” Crenshaw told CNN. “We’ve got a very strong history of work. He’s got a very strong history of passing zero bills in the Texas legislature.”

In response to Crenshaw’s remarks, Nick Maddux, a consultant for Toth’s campaign, criticized the congressman for voting against his own constituents’ interests and reacting to “any ounce of criticism with hubristic rage and anger.”

“After alienating not only his voters, almost the entire Texas delegation and all of Congress along the way, it’s no surprise that he finds himself with few friends helping him down the stretch,” Maddux told CNN on Thursday.

What a Crenshaw loss would mean to Republicans – and to him

If Crenshaw loses on Tuesday or in an eventual runoff, he would be the first Texas House incumbent to go down in a primary since 2014.

A loss would be the latest warning sign for congressional Republicans seen as out of line with MAGA. Longtime Sen. John Cornyn, running for reelection and facing similar questions about his loyalty to Trump, is in the toughest test of his career from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and US Rep. Wesley Hunt.

“Crenshaw’s kinda got a Cornyn problem, in that he wasn’t a devout Trumpy the whole time. And now he’s paying for it,” Reb Wayne, a longtime Texas GOP strategist who is neutral in the race, told CNN.

One person close to Crenshaw put it another way: “He admits he doesn’t just tell people what they want to hear.”

While Crenshaw’s voting record is firmly pro-White House, Republicans in Texas and Washington say he has been increasingly alienating himself from the party. People close to Crenshaw insist he has maintained a cordial relationship with the president but acknowledge he’s detested by plenty of Trump’s closest advisers.

“There were some votes that he cast incorrectly in the eyes of a lot of conservatives. The other thing that’s hurt him is he’s one of these politicians that just can’t stay off Twitter,” Wayne added.

That animosity stems from Crenshaw’s positions like his support for Ukraine, his vote to certify the 2020 election and his support for resettling Afghan allies in the US. But it’s also some of his personal conduct, like his bitter feud with Tucker Carlson or his veiled attacks calling Congress’s MAGA hardliners “grifters.” (Then there are the allegations of public drunkenness while on a work trip to Mexico City, which Crenshaw has denied.)

Crenshaw’s allies say he simply doesn’t care to pander for endorsements and would rather win a race on his merits. They say he’s always disdained politics and that he achieved his sole mission in life by becoming a Navy SEAL. He received a Purple Heart after losing his right eye in Afghanistan.

“He is not someone who just follows the party talking points and he has prided himself on telling the truth, including to Republican base voters, and sometimes they don’t like that,” another person familiar with Crenshaw’s thinking told CNN.

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