Ted Cruz criticized after watching Texas A&M football team’s loss to Notre Dame

Sen. Ted Cruz is a proud Texan, having moved to Houston as a child. And since being elected as one of two U.S. senators from the Lone Star State, Cruz has often rooted for sports teams across Texas. And unfortunately, that was the turn of the Texas A&M football program.

Why unfortunately? Well, Cruz has a nasty habit of rooting for Texas teams right before they lose a big game. Some have called him a “bad luck charm” and dubbed these (probable) coincidences the “Cruz curse.” Regardless, when Cruz posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday that he was at Kyle Field backstopped Texas A&M in its Week 1 game against Notre Dame, which got many Aggie fans excited and Irish fans excited.

It would be unfair and illogical to blame a politician for Texas A&M’s 100 passing yards in a 23-13 home loss to Notre Dame, but life is unfair and illogical, and so are many sports fans. Before, during and immediately after the loss, social media unleashed its anger and jokes on Cruz for “causing” the Aggies’ loss.

Some fans have called Cruz “Ted Luz,” and Cruz’s U.S. Senate opponent, U.S. Rep. Collin Allred, who played college football at Baylor and in the NFL for the Tennessee Titans, used the “curse” as the basis for a “Lose Cruz” political ad.

Texas A&M is the latest sports team to lose a game Cruz attended. The Texas football team, which reached the College Football Playoff earlier this year, lost in the semifinals 37-31 to Washington while Cruz watched the game in New Orleans. Baylor, Allred’s alma mater, was also upset by Texas State earlier in the season when Cruz decided to show up for the game in Waco.

Cruz has been blamed for a number of miscellaneous losses, most of which have occurred in the last two years, but he was notably present for two World Series victories by the Houston Astros when the team won the title in 2022. It’s just that nothing has really gone right since then for the teams he chooses to support.