Senator Ted Cruz has reportedly informed donors that he anticipates the backing of Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy for his anticipated 2028 presidential campaign. This endorsement could provide Cruz with a powerful conservative media platform as he potentially faces off against Vice President JD Vance.

The revelation coincides with Ruddy’s upcoming testimony before Cruz’s Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, is titled “We Interrupt This Program: Media Ownership and the Digital Age.”

Ruddy has expressed his opposition to a proposed change in Federal Communications Commission regulations. The rule change would increase the cap on local television station ownership, potentially facilitating a merger between Nexstar, the parent company of NewsNation, and Tenga, which operates 64 local TV stations across 51 U.S. markets.

An attendee of a Cruz fundraiser last year, who has financially supported the senator, shared with the Daily Mail that Cruz announced Ruddy’s intention to use Newsmax in support of Cruz’s expected run in the Republican primary.

However, Cruz’s spokesperson, Macarena Martinez, has disputed this account from the donor.

Cruz’s spokesperson Macarena Martinez pushed back on donor’s account.

‘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,’ Martinez said. ‘Journalists used to know how to do their jobs. Those days are clearly far behind us.’

The Daily Mail’s donor source swatted back: ‘I guess they don’t call him lying Ted for nothing.’ 

Senator Ted Cruz told donors that Newsmax’s CEO Chris Ruddy would be supporting a potential 2028 presidential bid, an attendee at a fundraiser told the Daily Mail. Ruddy will be testifying in front of the Senate committee Cruz chairs on Tuesday 

Ruddy didn’t answer directly when asked if he was supporting Cruz’s presidential bid, instead supplying the Daily Mail with a statement through a spokesperson about Tuesday’s hearing. 

‘I am looking forward to joining with Chairman Cruz and the other Senators on the committee to have an open and frank discussion about the dangers of media consolidation in the television broadcast industry,’ Ruddy said. 

After the story was published, a spokesperson for Ruddy told the Daily Mail that the Newsmax CEO ‘denies the “fake news” he ever promised Senator Cruz any endorsement and neither he nor Newsmax have made any pledge of support for any candidate in 2028.’ 

Ruddy has historically been against major media consolidations, and the Nexstar-TENGA deal is no different.

Ruddy has said that the merger would hurt conservative media and filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, arguing that the deal violates national ownership caps.

The FCC’s current rule prohibits broadcasters from owning stations that reach more than 39 percent of U.S. households. 

The enlarged Nexstar would reach 54.5 percent. 

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, has signaled support for updating the rules, though there’s also a legal question of whether that would need to be decided by Congress instead.

‘The answer to Big Tech consolidation is not to give left-wing TV broadcasters massive consolidation and power too,’ Ruddy wrote in an Newsmax op-ed in November. ‘We don’t need anti-Trump media controlling everything.’ 

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy has been vocally against the Nexstar-Tenga merger arguing that it would hurt conservative media, but this weekend President Donald Trump publicly touted the merger

‘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,’ Ruddy added.

Ruddy was overruled this weekend by Trump himself.

‘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,’ Trump posted to Truth Social on Saturday.

‘Those that are opposed don’t fully understand how good the concept of this Deal is for them, but they will in the future. GET THAT DEAL DONE!’ Trump added, signing the message, ‘PRESIDENT DJT.’

With Trump’s endorsement, that puts Ruddy on the same side of the issue as top Democrats, including progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Maxwell Frost and Summer Lee. 

Witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing represent a variety of viewpoints. 

Beyond Ruddy the panel consists of Curtis LeGeyt, the president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcaster, who’s in support of eliminating broadcast ownership caps; Thomas Johnson, former general counsel of the FCC, who’s expected to argue that the agency can change the ownership cap rules without Congress; and Rebuild Local News’ President Steve Waldman.  

Cruz, as committee chair, hasn’t officially come down on one side or another on the merger. 

Senator Ted Cruz hasn’t been shy about White House ambitions, swatting down a pitch recently that President Donald Trump could appoint him to the Supreme Court instead 

But he has tussled with Carr in the past, calling the FCC chairman’s move in September to go after ABC’s broadcast license over comments made by Jimmy Kimmel ‘dangerous as hell.’ 

Nexstar had pulled Kimmel off its airwaves in a move that looked to curry favor with the FCC chairman. 

The Texas senator likened Carr’s move to a mafia boss: ‘That’s right out of Goodfellas,’ Cruz said.

Cruz warned that if the government got into the business of what the media said ‘that will end up bad for conservatives.’ 

‘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 said.

The Texas senator hasn’t been shy about his own White House ambitions.

A graduate of Harvard Law School and having previously served as the solicitor general of Texas, Cruz has the resume of a wannabe Supreme Court justice.

But he slapped down that idea, which was recently floated by Trump, in an episode last week of the Ruthless podcast, which was first obtained by the Daily Mail. 

‘My answer’s not just no, it’s hell no,’ Cruz said of serving on the high court. 

The Texas senator suggested he had no place in the judicial branch, which is historically supposed to stay away from political debates, because that’s what he likes best.

‘A principled federal judge stays out of political fights and stays out of policy fights,’ Cruz said. ‘I want to be right in the middle of them.’ 

Behind the scenes, Cruz has also been trash-talking his future biggest rival – Vance.

In leaked audio recordings given to Axios last month by a Republican source, Cruz is heard characterizing Vance as a pawn of conservative podcaster and Fox News Channel veteran Tucker Carlson.

‘Tucker created JD. JD is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same,’ Cruz said.

Newsmax gets about one-sixth of the audience of Fox News Channel, with its highest-rated show in January receiving 345,000 eyeballs to Fox’s 2.046 million in primetime. 

But Ruddy’s endorsement will be much needed, argued a source close to the White House.

‘Because he’s got no other conservative outlet,’ the source said. ‘Everyone else is gonna be with JD.’ 

‘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 source joked of Ruddy’s support.