New ad by Richard Linklater scoffs at the idea that GOP Sen. Ted Cruz is 'tough as Texas'

It's never a good thing when someone hears your earnest campaign slogan and bursts out laughing, yet that's exactly what happens in this new ad poking fun at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Reprising his role from the 2011 movie Bernie, actor Sonny Carl Davis stars in the Richard Linklater–directed advertisement, which takes place in a diner. Davis explains how he heard Cruz is claiming to be "tough as Texas," which is hilarious, seeing as how he now sidles up to President Trump — the same man who once ridiculed wife Heidi Cruz's looks and accused Cruz's father of being involved in the plot to kill a president.

"If somebody called my wife a dog and said my daddy was in on the Kennedy assassination, I wouldn't be kissing their ass," an incredulous Davis says. "You stick a finger in their chest and give them a few choice words or you drag their ass out by the woodshed and kick their ass, Ted. Come on. Ted."

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The ad was created by the Fire Ted Cruz PAC, which is independent of the campaign of Cruz's Democratic opponent, Rep. Beto O'Rourke (Texas). The PAC was formed by Dallas lawyer Marc Stanley, a Democratic donor, who told the Dallas Morning News it's "not in Beto's DNA to be negative. That's one of the reasons that we started Fire Ted Cruz PAC, so that we could tell people how awful Ted Cruz is." Watch the ad below. Catherine Garcia