Senator Ted Cruz told donors at a private fundraiser that Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy would deploy his network to support a Cruz 2028 presidential campaign, according to an anonymous attendee who spoke to the Daily Mail. The claim — denied by both Cruz's office and Ruddy's team — lands just as Ruddy prepares to testify before Cruz's own Senate committee on media ownership.
The timing alone deserves attention.
Cruz chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which is holding a hearing Tuesday titled "We Interrupt This Program: Media Ownership and the Digital Age." Ruddy is a scheduled witness. The two men share a common opponent in the proposed Nexstar-Tegna merger — and if the anonymous donor's account is accurate, they may share quite a bit more.
The donor, described as someone who has contributed financially to Cruz, told the Daily Mail:
"I attended a Ted Cruz fundraiser late last year and during the fundraiser Senator Cruz mentioned that Chris Ruddy would be using Newsmax to support his candidacy when and if he runs for the Republican primary, which is expected."
Cruz spokesperson Macarena Martinez fired back without hesitation:
"Once again, anonymous sources are putting words in Senator Cruz's mouth to further their own agendas. These are obvious lies, but the media once again shows that they are ready and eager to be spun up and used at every opportunity."
She added:
"Journalists used to know how to do their jobs. Those days are clearly far behind us."
Ruddy's team issued its own denial after publication, with a spokesperson saying the Newsmax CEO "denies the 'fake news' he ever promised Senator Cruz any endorsement, and neither he nor Newsmax has made any pledge of support for any candidate in 2028."
The anonymous donor, when presented with the denial, offered a parting shot:
"I guess they don't call him lying Ted for nothing."
So what we have is a single anonymous source against two on-the-record denials. That's worth noting before anyone builds a narrative castle on this foundation.
Even if the specific claim is exaggerated or fabricated, the underlying dynamics are real — and they illuminate the early fault lines of what could be a bruising 2028 Republican primary.
Cruz has been making moves. Last week, in an episode of the Ruthless podcast first obtained by the Daily Mail, he rejected the idea of a Supreme Court appointment that President Trump had recently floated:
"My answer's not just no, it's hell no."
His reasoning was characteristically blunt:
"A principled federal judge stays out of political fights and stays out of policy fights. I want to be right in the middle of them."
That's not a man positioning himself for a lifetime of judicial temperament. That's a man who wants to run for president — again.
Then there's the leaked audio. Last month, recordings given to Axios by a Republican source captured Cruz offering a remarkably candid assessment of Vice President JD Vance:
"Tucker created JD. JD is Tucker's protégé, and they are one and the same."
That's not the kind of thing you say about someone you view as an ally. It's opposition research delivered in your own voice.
If Cruz were shopping for conservative media support, his options would be limited. A source described as close to the White House explained why Ruddy's backing — real or imagined — would matter:
"Because he's got no other conservative outlet. Everyone else is gonna be with JD."
That same source added a less flattering assessment of what Ruddy's support would actually be worth:
"Maybe the way he sees it is Ted's going to be in the primary for a month and then he'll be gone, so it's not really - it's not like he's making a long-term commitment."
The numbers bear out the skepticism. Newsmax pulls roughly one-sixth of Fox News Channel's audience. In January, Newsmax's highest-rated primetime show drew 345,000 viewers. Fox's comparable figure: 2.046 million. It's the difference between a megaphone and a bullhorn — both amplify, but one carries a lot further.
Lost in the 2028 speculation is an actual policy fight worth watching. Tuesday's hearing centers on media ownership rules in the digital age, and the Nexstar-Tegna merger sits at the heart of it.
Tegna owns 64 local television stations across 51 U.S. markets. The FCC currently prohibits broadcasters from owning stations that reach more than 39 percent of American households. An enlarged Nexstar would reach 54.5 percent — blowing past the cap.
Ruddy filed a complaint with the FCC, arguing the deal violates national ownership caps. In a November Newsmax op-ed, he wrote:
"The answer to Big Tech consolidation is not to give left-wing TV broadcasters massive consolidation and power too. We don't need anti-Trump media controlling everything."
He also took a direct shot at the administration's own FCC chairman, Brendan Carr:
"It shocks me President Trump's FCC chairman has made his main priority giving the TV broadcasters more power and control, especially over local news."
President Trump, for his part, endorsed the merger on Truth Social Saturday:
"We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks. Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar - Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level."
That puts Ruddy and Cruz on one side of a media consolidation fight and the President on the other — a notable split that makes the alleged backroom alliance all the more interesting, regardless of whether it's real.
It also places Ruddy on the same side of the merger issue as Elizabeth Warren, Maxwell Frost, and Summer Lee. Strange bedfellows don't begin to cover it.
Cruz has tangled with FCC Chairman Carr before — particularly over Carr's September move to go after ABC's broadcast license over comments made by Jimmy Kimmel. Cruz called it what he saw:
"Dangerous as hell."
"That's right out of Goodfellas."
His concern wasn't about defending ABC. It was about precedent:
"Going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again – wins the White House … they will silence us. They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly. And that is dangerous."
Cruz warned that if the government got into the business of policing what the media said, "that will end up bad for conservatives." It's a consistent libertarian-conservative position on media regulation, and it explains why he'd chair a hearing designed to scrutinize ownership consolidation rather than rubber-stamp it.
Strip away the anonymous sourcing and the denials, and a clear picture still emerges. Ted Cruz is not going to the Supreme Court. He's not retiring to a podcast. He's running for president — or at minimum, keeping every door open and every relationship warm.
Whether Chris Ruddy promised anything is almost beside the point. The structural reality is that a Cruz campaign would need a media ecosystem, and the major conservative outlets are likely to coalesce around Vance. If Newsmax — even at one-sixth of Fox's audience — provides a platform, it's better than nothing.
Ruddy, meanwhile, told the Daily Mail he looks forward to Tuesday's hearing and "an open and frank discussion about the dangers of media consolidation in the television broadcast industry." He did not answer directly when asked about supporting Cruz's presidential bid.
The denials are on the record. The ambitions are obvious. And both men sit down on Tuesday in a Senate hearing room where their interests happen to align perfectly — on media ownership, at least.
Everything else is just 2028 positioning disguised as 2026 policy.
