Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is recruiting people to work on a potential 2028 presidential campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Cruz recently signaled his intent for a second run at the White House by declaring, “It’s no secret I want to be president,” on a podcast. But, he added, “time will tell” if he will throw his hat in the ring.

The Journal put some more heft behind the Texas senator’s possible bid, writing:

“Ted Cruz isn’t hiding his presidential ambitions,” the outlet wrote. “The Texas senator and firebrand conservative is already putting in the legwork in Iowa, hitting the podcast circuit and embarking on a book tour. He is also quietly asking people if they would be interested in working on his 2028 bid, according to people familiar with the requests.”

Cruz has emphasized that he and other Republicans have not conceded the nomination to Vice President JD Vance by any means, and the Journal noted that he has criticized the front-runner.

“JD negotiated the MOU with Iran. That was a terrible deal,” Cruz said, per the Journal, in a dig at the memorandum of understanding that was intended to lead to peace in President Donald Trump’s war against Iran. But renewed hostilities point to no foreseeable end to the conflict as the midterms approach.

The senator has also been flattering Trump, who also took time out to compliment Cruz. “I would say that he’s very talented; he’s a very good friend of mine,” Trump said. “I think he might do that. Yeah, he’s a talented guy.”

But Cruz and those potential campaign workers he’s wooing will face a steep climb. He’s not making much of a dent in a recent aggregation of polls by The New York Times.

Cruz ran for president in 2016 and made some headway behind the future President Trump in the primaries.

h/t Mediaite

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