Ted Cruz is a huge video game nerd

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last updated 28 May 2015

If you're a young, technologically inclined person in America, you probably have an opinion on the highest-stakes competition currently dominating the national conversation: Plants vs. Zombies. Lucky for you, so does one of the politicians vying for your vote to be the next president.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), best known as a polished Ivy League debate champion beloved by the far-right Tea Party wing and one of the many Republican candidates for president in 2016, is also a huge video game nerd, The Daily Beast reports. In fact, the senator is so enthralled by the likes of Super Mario Brothers and Centipede that he denies himself a game console "because if I had one, I would use it far too much."

Apparently, Cruz's current vices include Plants vs. Zombies, Candy Crush, and The Creeps!, all of which are playable via smartphone. But gaming is a family affair in the Cruz household, with the senator telling the Beast that he and his daughters "curl up and play games," which drives his wife Heidi "crazy." Seeing as President Obama famously gave up his own addiction — smoking — at the urging of the First Lady, perhaps Mrs. Cruz will have similar luck should her husband win the nation's highest office.