‘Ted Cruz curse’ strikes again as Texas Longhorns lose following Republican’s appearance

Republican Party and Texas senator Ted Cruz wears a suit and tie as he stands before a crowd off screen

Republican Ted Cruz has been blamed for the Texas Longhorn New Year’s Day football game loss due to his infamous “curse”. 

The Texas Longhorns’ season came to an end after the team lost 37-31 against the Washington Huskies at their Sugar Bowl standoff on Monday (1 January) night. The win advances the Huskies to their first national championship game in the University of Washington’s school history. 

This was the second straight bowl game loss for the Longhorns against the Huskies, who beat the Longhorns at the Alamo Bowl last year. 

The Huskies’ victory – and the defeat for the Texas Longhorns – left some fans blaming Ted Cruz’s appearance at the game. The infamous Republican figure also shared his support for the Texas college team on X/Twitter

According to internet lore, anytime Ted Cruz has appeared in the crowd of a sporting event, his team loses, with people dubbing the Republican Party senator ‘cursed’ online. 

He was accused of jinxing the Houston Rockets when the team was eliminated from the 2018 National Basketball Association playoffs while Cruz was in the crowd. 

You may like to watch

Then, in 2019, fans blamed a Cruz selfie for Texas Tech’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship game defeat. 

The Ted Cruz ‘curse’ came up again after the Houston Astros were eliminated from the Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs in October. The Republican senator is apparently a huge fan of the MLB team.

Ted Cruz pushed back at the belief that his presence and support is a ‘curse’ for his favourite sports teams in a post on X/Twitter. He called the Rolling Stones “lying hacks” after the magazine published an article about fans begging him to stay home from the Astros game. 

Beyond allegedly bringing harmful outcomes to his sports teams, Ted Cruz has leaned into the current moral panic over trans rights that’s rife within the Republican Party. 

In May, he called for an investigation into Anheuser-Busch for its advertising collab with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney

When he was campaigning for the Republican Party presidential nomination in 2016, Ted Cruz tried to attack trans people’s access to bathrooms in an attempt to stave off Donald Trump’s lead in the polls. 

He once attempted to be funny by pushing a tired pronoun joke in 2022, saying his pronouns were “kiss my a**”. Cruz had a cameo in The Daily Wire’s virulently anti-trans ‘comedy’ film Lady Ballers

The Republican senator also whined about “woke” Disney including “lesbian toys” in the Lightyear movie and alleged that the student loan debt relief plan would leave taxpayers funding “queer pet literature” degrees.