It may be hard to believe, but Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) wife Heidi said “It was love at first sight” for her. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) famously said “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.” Living with the Texas Senator has not been easy for his wife.
Heidi Cruz will be facing six more years being a virtual single parent if her husband wins his competitive campaign against Beto O’Rourke (D-TX). The Atlantic asked the senator if he thought his wife was happy now:
‘Um, I think (pause) sure. I think she has (pause) a professional life that has been very rewarding, a personal life that is fun and relaxing.’
Relaxing is not a word that really describes her life. She said:
‘I really feel mission-driven on what he’s accomplishing. (But) it does take some supportiveness, you know. Six to seven years in it, with me being the primary breadwinner—it’s like, “Uh, yeah, this is when people say thank you.” I’ll now take that appreciation. (Laughs) Yeah, we’re seven years into this, and we’re not buying a second home anytime soon.’
She had to leave her dream job to support Ted Cruz’s career:
‘Being at the Treasury Department was a dream for me, and I was just at the staff level. And to do that at higher levels … I love that route, no doubt. (But) I can do the retail-politics thing pretty well now.’
Mrs. Cruz is no slouch. She is managing director of Goldman Sachs in Houston, unless she is taking time off to campaign for her husband. She had this to say about her husband:
‘He’ll be like, “It’s such a great life! We have so much adventure ahead! It’s like our magic-carpet ride.” And sometimes I’m like, “I hope we don’t hit the cement.”‘
They decided Ted should move to Austin as solicitor general, and Heidi would stay in Washington, now working on the National Security Council for Condoleezza Rice. After two years of a long-distance relationship, Heidi moved to take a job with Merrill Lynch in Houston. She was not happy, because Washington had been her dream since she was eight years old.
Ten years ago, she was in a deep depression. Both of the Cruzes working in the Bush administration. Her job was in the Treasury Department as director of the Latin America office. The senator was with the Federal Trade Commission. “She was happy. He was not.”
Then, she crashed into a deep depression.
‘And then it wasn’t just that. It was, like, all of this—like, “Why am I here? And by the way, I gave up living where my family is to come here, so that I could sit on (the) 290 freeway every week to go work for a company that’s actually headquartered in New York, and I could be in headquarters if I wasn’t here with you. Like, I mean, all these things, right? And so, I dipped.’
Ten years later, she has comes to terms with her role:
‘I realized early on that if I didn’t do this for my own reasons, and I did it to help Ted … that I could very easily resent everybody. (To find) something bigger (than herself.)’
When Ted decided to run for president, she was not happy:
‘You cannot prepare to run for president. You can’t prepare to be told on the flight, “Oh, sorry, you’re gonna have a meeting with a bunch of pastors at the hot-dog stand in the Des Moines, Iowa, airport, and they’re gonna ask you about your husband’s spiritual life. I mean, that’s the weirdest expletive I’ve ever heard!’
The Atlantic noted:
‘It may be Heidi’s way of avoiding one truth she’s learned as a political spouse: that this life only gets harder as it goes on. Another term in the Senate means six more years her husband won’t live at home. It means more family conversations about why Dad can’t make it to school on Wednesday for the meet and greet with Caroline’s new teachers. It means Heidi is working 70-hour weeks not only because she wants to, but also because she has to.’
Life has been hard for Mrs. Cruz:
‘When I first moved here, I didn’t know where I fit in. I didn’t have a base, and I felt lost. And the answer was: Put your head down, work hard, earn your own credibility again … It often turns out much better than not.’
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
