Ted Cruz, pictured flying back to Houston, Texas, on Thursday said he had been in ‘constant communication’ with state and local leaders over the blackouts and that he and his family had ‘lost heat and power too’ © Reuters

Ted Cruz criticised for Mexico trip during Texas weather crisis

Senator flies to Cancún as US state grapples with freezing temperatures and power blackouts

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As millions of Texans grappled with a record-setting Arctic blast and electricity blackouts, Ted Cruz, one of the US state’s Republican senators, had his own plan for dealing with the crisis: a dash for warm weather.

On Wednesday evening, with the US Congress in recess, Cruz took a United Airlines flight from Houston to Cancún, Mexico. He was spotted at the airport by other travellers, who posted multiple photographs of the senator on social media.

The backlash was swift. Texas Democrats called for his resignation after Fox News confirmed Cruz’s trip, adding to the political pressure on Republicans in the state, including Governor Greg Abbott, over their handling of the power meltdown.

“They say crisis reveals character. As Texans freeze in their homes, Texas Republicans show their true colours,” Luke Warford, chief strategy officer for Texas Democrats, wrote on Twitter. “Abbott goes on Fox News to advance his presidential ambitions. Cruz f@$&s off to Cancún. This is who they are. Weak. Inept. Self-Serving. Texans deserve better.”

Cruz released a statement hours after the pictures first surfaced on Thursday saying that he had travelled to Cancún to accompany his two daughters.

Cruz should be on the phone with federal agencies, not on a trip to MexicoJulian Castro, Democratic former mayor of San Antonio

“With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon,” he said.

Cruz added that he had been in “constant communication” with state and local leaders over the blackouts and that he and his family had “lost heat and power too”.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, addressed Cruz’s trip during a briefing with reporters in Washington. “Many people across the state are without power, without the resources they need, and we expect that would be the focus of anyone in the state who was elected to represent them,” she said.

Cruz, who has represented Texas in the US Senate since 2013, is no stranger to controversy. In January, he led the charge in the upper chamber of Congress against certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election over Donald Trump.

The 50-year-old lawmaker also became one of the former president’s most loyal followers despite having been repeatedly mocked and berated by the former president during the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

His alliance with Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election, which culminated in the deadly invasion of the Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, earned Cruz criticism even from Republicans in Congress.

The damage to him locally from the Cancún trip could be more significant, although Cruz does not face re-election until 2024.

Some Texans have been forced to take shelter © Reuters
The state has buckled under a freezing snap © AFP via Getty Images

The top homepage bar of the Houston Chronicle website on Thursday featured two stories — one asking “How do you boil water without power or water?” and the other, “Did Ted Cruz seriously just fly to Cancún?”

“In crises like these, members of Congress play a critical role connecting their constituents to emergency services and assistance. Cruz should be on the phone with federal agencies, not on a trip to Mexico,” said Julian Castro, a Democrat who served in the Obama administration and is the former mayor of San Antonio.

Before travelling to Mexico, Cruz had urged Texas to “stay safe” and follow the directions of local officials, while also paying tribute to Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk-show host who died this week.

The previous day, he had shown some contrition for accusing California of mishandling its own energy crisis in 2020. “I got no defence,” Cruz wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “A blizzard strikes Texas & our state shuts down. Not good.”

Texas made some progress bringing power generation back on to the grid and restoring electricity to homes and businesses in the early hours of Thursday morning.

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The number of households without power fell to about 500,000, down from a peak of more than 4m earlier in the week, according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks outages across the country.

“We’re to the point in the load restoration where we are allowing transmission owners to bring back any load they can,” said Dan Woodfin of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator.

However, Ercot has warned that a significant amount of the generation capacity remained offline and rotating blackouts were likely to continue for a few more days, with some relief on the horizon with temperatures forecast to rise over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the power outages continued to have cascading effects, with many cities across the state, including Houston and Fort Worth, being forced to issue water boil notices as water systems across the state lost pressure due to the loss of power, making tap water unsafe to drink.