Former Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst says he is backing Sen. Ted Cruz for president.
The two ran against each other in 2012 for the Republican nomination in a bitter race for the Senate seat held by retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
On Friday in Austin he called Cruz the best person in the field to unite Republicans and win the White House.
"I am going to have to go with our Texan in the race. He is a good guy. Ted and I think alike. Ted has been a friend for 20 years. His wife, Heidi, and I are dear friends. I just had lunch with her not long ago. I think Ted would be a great president of the United States," Dewhurst told NBC 5.
Dewhurst said he recently had lunch with Heidi Cruz, and they talked about Dewhurst supporing Cruz for president. He is letting bygones be bygones.
"Any time you are in a race with someone, and I am not saying that Ted did this, but his campaign repeatedly said things that were not true about me. It tests a friendship, but that was then, this is now.
Ted won. I give him a lot of credit," added Dewhurst.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Dewhurst, who has been out of politics for more than a year now, has been following the presidential election. We asked him about the tone of it.
"I have never seen anything this embarrassing in a lot of ways. A couple of these debates, unfortunately, were like a school yard brawl between kids back and forth, hurling insults at each other. Of the three remaining candidates, we have one who is a bully, we've got Ted Cruz – who I've known for a long time and he is a friend – and we've got John Kasich, who is a good guy," said Dewhurst.
