Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has been compared to animated character Homer Simpson in an attack ad from an environmental group.
The video is from NRDC Action Votes, a political affiliate of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental advocacy group that aims to "confront the climate crisis, protect public health, and safeguard nature." The short clip mocks Cruz over his February 2021 trip to Cancún, Mexico, amid a major winter freeze and power outages in Texas.
The trip resurfaced during the debate with the Democratic challenger for Cruz's Senate seat, Colin Allred, on October 15. "He's never there for us when we need him," Allred said. "When the lights went out in the energy capital of the world, he went to Cancún."
The ad, which was released on YouTube on Monday, features Cruz animated in the style of The Simpsons slowly walking backwards and disappearing into a bush, a reference from a segment of a 1994 episode where Homer Simpson does the same, which has since been turned into a viral online meme.
"Ted Cruz when you ask him why he was in Cancún when the power grid failed," a voiceover on the ad says while Cruz backs into the bush.
Newsweek has contacted Cruz's office for comment via email.
Cruz is a known fan of The Simpsons, and suggested Republicans are "happily the party of Homer, Bart, Maggie and Marge," at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2018. Cruz added "Democrats are the party of Lisa Simpson," the 8-year-old who is portrayed as a liberal member of the cartoon family.
A BuzzFeed video of Cruz doing impersonations of the show's various characters also went viral in 2015. "I have been told many times: I have a face for radio, and I have a face for animation," he joked at the end of the clip.
Newsweek has contacted Cruz's office for comment via email.
Cruz was highly criticized for flying out to Cancún with his family in February 2021 amid a deadly winter storm which saw Texas deal with power outages and freezing temperatures.
Cruz originally defended his actions by claiming that he flew to Cancún to "be a good dad" after his daughters asked to go on a trip with friends when school was canceled.
Cruz later told reporters that it was "obviously a mistake" to fly out to Cancún at the time of the storm.
"I didn't want all the screaming and yelling about this trip to distract even one moment from the real issues that I think Texans care about, which is keeping all of our families safe," Cruz said.
In September, Cruz attacked Allred for deleting an endorsement from the Natural Resources Defense Council from his Instagram page.
Cruz's team suggested Allred deleted the Instagram post after realizing the Natural Resources Defense Council's "primary goal is to kill the oil and gas industry."
"This continues to prove not only how in sync Allred is with the radical wing of his party that wants to destroy the energy industry and countless jobs with it but also how incredibly hypocritical and disingenuous his campaign is," a Cruz campaign spokesperson said in a statement.
Newsweek has contacted the Allred campaign via email for comment.
A post on X, formerly Twitter, where Allred says he is "grateful" to have the endorsement from NRDC Action Votes is still live.
"I'm proud of the work that I've done to ensure we take an all-of-the-above energy approach that addresses the climate crisis, creates energy jobs and ensures Texans have a safe and clean environment, " Allred posted in September.
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