Ted Cruz
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40 free Ted Cruz trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Ted Cruz is one of the most recognizable figures in American politics, and one of the most argued about. Behind the headlines is a biography full of odd turns: a childhood spent far from the state he represents, a teenage talent for public speaking, a fast rise through elite courtrooms, and a run for the White House that turned into one of the fiercest primary fights in memory. This quiz gathers the fun facts people actually look up about him. Some questions cover his family, his schooling and his years as a lawyer arguing before the highest court in the land. Others follow his Senate races, his best-known speeches and his rivalries with fellow Republicans. A good share are lighter: favorite films, pets, grocery runs, internet jokes and a basketball game against a talk-show host. It is written for politics watchers, students and anyone who wants trivia night material that goes beyond the news. The questions stick to the record rather than taking sides, and every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still leaves you with a story worth repeating.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ted Cruz, a United States senator from Texas, was born in 1970 in which nation, whose citizenship he gave up in 2014?
Canada
Canada was home for his first years, and he held dual citizenship until a Dallas newspaper pointed it out in 2013. He formally renounced it the following year.
Q 02Which Dr. Seuss book did Ted Cruz read aloud on the Senate floor during a 21-hour speech in 2013?
Green Eggs and Ham
Green Eggs and Ham exists because of a bet: Dr. Seuss's editor wagered $50 that he could not write a book using only 50 different words. Cruz read it during an all-night stand in the chamber.
Q 03During the Texas winter storm and blackouts of February 2021, Ted Cruz flew with his family to which Mexican resort?
Cancún
Cancún was meant to last through the weekend, but after he was spotted on the plane he flew back to Texas the next day without his family and called the trip a mistake.
Q 04An internet joke that began in 2013 pretends that Ted Cruz is secretly which notorious California murderer?
The Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer's last confirmed attack came 14 months before Ted Cruz was born, which is the point of the joke. Cruz has played along, once posting one of the coded letters himself.
Q 05Which 1980s fairy-tale adventure film does Ted Cruz call his favorite, often quoting it on the campaign trail?
The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride is the film he knows by heart, and in 2015 its star Mandy Patinkin complained that Cruz kept quoting his character while missing the story's point about revenge.
Q 06Which insulting nickname did Donald Trump repeatedly use for Ted Cruz during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries?
Lyin' Ted
Lyin' Ted was the label Trump used again and again, and Cruz hit back by calling him a chronic liar. Within a few years the two were allies in Washington.
Q 07Ted Cruz says he grew up on classic rock but switched to which genre of music after the September 11 attacks?
Country
Country won him over, he told CBS in 2015, because he liked how its artists responded to the attacks and was let down by rock's reaction.
Q 08Ted Cruz began using the nickname Ted at age 13, but which legal first name does he share with his father?
Rafael
Rafael Edward Cruz is the name he was given at birth, so Ted is short for his middle name rather than for Theodore.
Q 09Just after their honeymoon, Ted Cruz went shopping alone and surprised his wife Heidi with 100 cans of which food?
Soup
Soup, 100 cans of Campbell's Chunky in assorted flavors, came home with him. Heidi returned it all the next morning, then bought it back because neither of them could cook.
Q 10Ted Cruz beat which late-night television host 11–9 in a one-on-one charity basketball game in Texas in 2018?
Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel had compared the senator's looks to a blobfish, so Cruz challenged him to the game, which was nicknamed the Blobfish Basketball Classic and raised over $80,000 for charity.
Q 11Ted Cruz beat Donald Trump in February 2016 to win the first contest of the Republican race in which state?
Iowa
Iowa made him the first Hispanic candidate to win a presidential primary or caucus. He took 28% of the vote there and finished the race with 11 states.
Q 12Ted Cruz narrowly won re-election to the Senate in 2018 by beating which Democratic challenger?
Beto O'Rourke
Beto O'Rourke lost by 50.9% to 48.3%, a slim margin for Texas. Six years later Cruz won his third term by more than eight points.
Q 13Ted Cruz's 21-hour Senate speech in September 2013 was an attempt to strip funding from which federal law?
Affordable Care Act
Q 21Ted Cruz has joked that he is Cuban, Irish and Italian yet somehow ended up in which Christian denomination?
Southern Baptist
Southern Baptist is the punchline because all three of those heritages are traditionally Catholic. His father left the Catholic Church in 1975 after joining a Bible study group.
Q 22Ted Cruz studied public policy as an undergraduate at which Ivy League university, graduating with honors in 1992?
Princeton
Princeton is where he wrote a 115-page thesis on the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, titled Clipping the Wings of Angels after a line credited to James Madison.
Q 23Which former Hewlett-Packard chief executive did Ted Cruz name as his running mate days before ending his 2016 campaign?
Carly Fiorina
Affordable Care Act funding survived because only 18 Republican senators backed the effort, and the standoff fed into that autumn's federal government shutdown.
Q 14In which Texas city did Ted Cruz grow up and graduate from high school as valedictorian in 1988?
Houston
Houston is where he went to junior high at an international school and, as a teen, joined a club that taught students free-market economics.
Q 15Ted Cruz earned his law degree with high honors in 1995 from which university's law school?
Harvard
Harvard is where he helped found the Latino Law Review and where professor Alan Dershowitz later described him as off-the-charts brilliant.
Q 16Ted Cruz was named US National Speaker of the Year in 1992 for his success in which college activity?
Debate
Debate was his arena: he won the top speaker award at two championships in 1992, and his university's team later named its annual novice tournament after him.
Q 17Ted Cruz won his first Senate race in 2012 as a favorite of which grassroots conservative movement?
Tea Party
Tea Party support carried him past a far better-funded rival in the primary, an upset that made him the first Hispanic senator from Texas.
Q 18Ted Cruz was booed at the 2016 Republican National Convention after his speech withheld what from Donald Trump?
An endorsement
An endorsement was what the crowd expected, but Cruz only congratulated Trump and told listeners to vote their conscience. He came around two months later, in September 2016.
Q 19Ted Cruz met his future wife, Heidi Nelson, while both worked on which candidate's 2000 presidential campaign?
George W. Bush
George W. Bush's campaign also sent Cruz to the Florida recount, where he helped assemble the legal team and recruited a future chief justice, John Roberts.
Q 20As a teenager, Ted Cruz joined a five-student group that memorized a shortened mnemonic version of which document?
The US Constitution
The US Constitution was the subject of the Constitutional Corroborators, who met two evenings a week to study the Federalist Papers and the arguments over ratification.
Carly Fiorina had been a rival for the nomination earlier in the race. Picking a running mate before winning is rare, and the ticket lasted only six days.
Q 24At which Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, did Ted Cruz launch his presidential campaign in March 2015?
Liberty
Liberty University gave him a packed hall: students were required to attend the convocation or be fined, and he became the first major Republican to enter the race.
Q 25Which Texas attorney general, later the state's governor, appointed Ted Cruz as solicitor general in 2003?
Greg Abbott
Greg Abbott wanted a national voice for Texas in court, and Cruz delivered: he argued nine cases before the US Supreme Court, more than any other Texas lawyer of the period.
Q 26Ted Cruz served as a law clerk from 1996 to 1997 for which member of the US Supreme Court?
William Rehnquist
William Rehnquist was chief justice at the time. Years later, Cruz left his trademark cowboy boots at home when he argued cases in front of his old boss.
Q 27Which former Republican House speaker likened Ted Cruz to the Devil during the 2016 presidential primaries?
John Boehner
John Boehner had once been Cruz's client: in 1998 the young lawyer was briefly on the team representing him in a lawsuit against a fellow congressman.
Q 28Which name belongs to the Ted Cruz family poodle left at home during the family's February 2021 trip to Mexico?
Snowflake
Snowflake was seen by reporters through the front door of the dark house, and a security guard later said he was looking after the dog.
Q 29Which foreign government sanctioned Ted Cruz twice in 2020 after he condemned its human rights record?
China
China named him in July 2020 over his comments on Xinjiang and again in August over Hong Kong, each time alongside other American politicians.
Q 30Ted Cruz's father left his homeland in 1957 during the rule of which dictator, later toppled by Fidel Castro?
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista was still in power when the elder Cruz left to study at the University of Texas. He has said he arrived with $100 sewn into his underwear and almost no English.