Houston Fans Livid After Ted Cruz 'Curse' Strikes Again At NCAA Basketball Championship

In 2013, 2016 and 2021, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz was labeled the most hated man in Congress—by members of his own party. In 2023, Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz replaced him as the "most hated."

In a 2016 CNN interview, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said:

"If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you."

@PreetBharara/X

Ouch.

In a 2018 interview, former Republican political strategist Rick Wilson said of Cruz:

"You either hate him or you hate him."

Former House Speaker and Ohio Republican John Boehner said:

"I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a b*tch in my life."

Cruz has never been particularly popular in the Senate. But he's been sent to Washington D.C. by the people of Texas in 2013, 2019, and 2025.

Maybe it's just to get him out of Texas.

On Monday, the University of Houston Cougars men's basketball team faced off against the University of Florida Gators in the NCAA national championship game. The junior Senator from Texas, Canadian-born Rafael Edward Cruz, AKA Ted Cruz, decided to attend the game.

His constituents wish he hadn't.

After Houston made it to March Madness—the nickname for the NCAA's single elimination tournament to determine the national champion—they advanced game after game until they found themselves playing for the championship.

But Houston fell to Florida in a real nail-biter. After being up by 10 points with 17 minutes to go, Houston saw their lead squander as Florida outscored them 35-23. In the end, only two points separated the winner from the loser.

And many noted that the Florida comeback started right after the Houston Chronicle tweeted about Cruz's attendance at the game.

It seemed that the Cruz Curse struck the people of Texas once again.

Conspiracy theorists—or the superstitious—have long blamed Cruz's attendance at games played by the Houston Astros, the Texas Longhorns, the Dallas Cowboys, and other Texas teams he supports for when those teams lose.

@RepBrendanBoyle/X

@twesq/Bluesky

@christopherharris/Bluesky

The Cruz Curse is not the only conspiracy theory centered on Cruz.

The internet has long claimed Cruz is the Zodiac Killer.

@evangelinewarren/X

As amusing as all the Cruz/Zodiac memes are, Cruz was born in 1970 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 

Cruz lived in Canada until 1974, when his family moved to Texas. The Zodiac Killer was active in the San Francisco Bay area of California from December 1968 - October 1969—before Cruz was born.