Ted Cruz is addicted to running for president

(Image credit: J Pat Carter/Getty Images)

published 23 January 2017

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was supposed to be the outsider presidential candidate in 2016, but with the help of one short epithet tied to his name by a boisterous billionaire real estate mogul, Lyin' Ted succumbed like every other Republican in the race. He isn't likely to be back anytime soon, either: "Even the senator's most bullish associates can't conjure a scenario where he'd challenge [President Donald] Trump in 2020," Politico writes.

And that eight years is a long, long time when you have an addiction to running for president:

What makes the wait so painstaking for Cruz, whose breakneck political metabolism powers an incessant quest for intellectual competition, is less his desire to occupy the Oval Office and more his euphoric addiction to running for president. It resulted in a crash after the campaign; Senate aides characterized him as grumpy and withdrawn, and friends worried he'd grown despondent without the rush of the trail. "It was the most fun I ever had in my life," Cruz tells me in a recent interview. "I jumped out of bed every day." [Politico]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.