With another winter storm bearing down on Texas, Senator Ted Cruz wants everyone to know he’s staying put.
The Texas Republican took to social media to make the point explicit, attempting a bit of self-aware humor as he stressed that he would remain in the state as freezing rain, snow, and frigid temperatures approached.
“I’ve returned home from my work trip. It’s 66 degrees & beautiful. A storm is expected tomorrow night,” Cruz wrote.
“But I am reliably informed by Twitter that if I simply raise up my hand on Texas soil, the storm will turn around & sunshine, rainbows & unicorns will emerge. Let it be.”
The joke was meant to get ahead of the inevitable commentary. Instead, it revived it.
The post came just days after Cruz was photographed aboard a flight departing Texas as forecasts warned of an incoming winter storm.
The image quickly went viral and revived memories of his infamous 2021 trip to Cancún during a deadly ice storm that left millions of Texans without heat, power, or safe drinking water, and ultimately contributed to the deaths of more than 200 people.
According to multiple media reports, Cruz’s office said the travel was a planned work trip and that he returned to Texas before the storm arrived.
The explanation did little to slow the reaction, with the internet once again resurrecting old nicknames like “Cancún Cruz” and “Flyin’ Ted,” joking that the senator’s whereabouts have become an unofficial weather warning system.
Cruz later acknowledged that the Cancún trip was a mistake.
“Leaving when so many Texans were hurting didn’t feel right,” he told reporters at the time, saying he cut his vacation short and returned on the first available flight.
The storm season scrutiny has followed him ever since—and seemingly with good reason. In 2025, the Daily Beast spotted Cruz and his wife taking a tour of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, as deadly floods tore through Texas Hill Country, killing more than 130 people.
Cruz’s office said at the time that he had already been on a planned family trip overseas and was working remotely with local officials as the disaster unfolded.
Now, as another front of extreme weather approaches, Cruz appears eager to show he’s in on the joke this time—even if the attempt at humor only underscores why Texans keep watching where he is when storms roll in.
