Private jets, primo sports tickets and free concerts for the whole family.
Membership apparently has its privileges, especially when you’re a U.S. senator with millionaire and billionaire pals.
Federal financial disclosures show that U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, last year accepted gifts with a combined value of more than $100,000 from deep-pocketed donors. Those ranged from free flights on private jets to $495 tickets to see the Houston Astros and more than $1,200 in concert tickets for himself, his wife and two kids.
Among the Texas business moguls who showered Cruz with gifts in 2025 were Houston-area billionaire GOP megadonor Robert Marling Jr., Midland oilman Bill Holmes and North Texas real estate developer Phillip Huffines, brother of Texas Comptroller Don Huffines, the senator’s legally required financial disclosures show.
However, the most valuable gift Cruz reported receiving last year — a round-trip flight on a privately owned aircraft to the tropical Turks and Caicos Islands — came from Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, chief investment officer for investment bank Goldman Sachs, the employer of the senator’s wife, Heidi. The flight, valued at more than $76,000, resulted from his wife’s employment, according to the disclosure.
“The same job-related benefit has been offered to other employees regardless of their spouse’s identity,” the senator’s filing states.
Cruz’s office didn’t respond to the Current’s request for comment on the disclosures.
Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel and senior director of ethics for D.C.-based watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, said nothing in Cruz’s reports appears to be illegal. However, both the number of gifts he accepted last year and their total value are unusual for a member of the Senate.
“You typically do not see a long list of gifts like these that senators receive from private individuals,” Payne said. “I’m not saying you don’t see it happen, but you don’t see it happen frequently.”
‘Something in return’
Campaign Legal Center was one of two nonprofit groups that filed a 2024 complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) arguing that Cruz’s controversial distribution deal for his Verdict With Ted Cruz podcast violates federal election law.
The FEC ultimately ruled the deal is aboveboard, but many critics still complained the arrangement doesn’t pass the smell test. Under the arrangement, the podcast’s distributor — San Antonio-based media conglomerate iHeartMedia — has agreed to pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into a Super PAC set up to ensure the senator’s reelection.
University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist Jon Taylor said the high-dollar gifts Cruz accepted last year raise questions about the influence powerful friends might have on the lawmaker. That’s especially true in light of revelations about his questionable podcast deal, he added.
“The first question I’d ask is what these people who lavished gifts on Ted Cruz expect to get out of it,” Taylor said. “I never expect anyone in politics to dole out money or favors without expecting to get something back. Ultimately, people are going to come calling, and they will ask for something in return.”
To that point, Cruz sits on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which the senator himself has described as having jurisdiction over 40% of the U.S. economy. Among other areas, the committee has jurisdiction over aviation, interstate commerce, consumer issues, economic development, technology and telecommunications.
The revelations about the gifts come as Cruz has hinted he may run for president in 2028, a move that would unleash deep scrutiny on his finances from opponents and the media.
Political baggage?
That examination also would come amid growing voter anger the perception that many politicians are using their positions to enrich themselves, said Cal Jillson, a political scholar at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The professor points to President Trump’s growing unpopularity and Texas voters’ apparent antipathy toward scandal-ridden U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
“People have reacted to Trump with a sort of quiet — and, in some cases, not-so-quiet — disgust, which has given the issue of self-enrichment more legs than in the past,” Jillson said. “If Cruz has an opponent with a clever campaign team, they may be able to make something out of those gifts.”
Even so, the three-term senator has likely calculated that many voters either view his financial dealings as typical for Washington elites or as so much inside baseball, Jillson said.
“There’s a bet on his part that nobody’s watching, or if they are, that they’re not all that concerned,” the professor said.
Like much in politics, Cruz’s acceptance of gifts from wealthy business moguls comes down to voter perception, UTSA’s Taylor said. But he cautioned they could come back to bite Cruz as he leans into a populist message.
Cruz, a Tea Party favorite who ultimately came to embrace Trump’s MAGA movement, has repeatedly dabbled with populism by lashing out at Hollywood elites and Silicon Valley billionaires. In 2024, he even blasted Democrats for abandoning blue-collar voters and becoming the party for the “rich, coastal elite.”
That kind of image may be harder to sell if Cruz’s opponents successfully bring attention to his free flights on private jets and $450 ticket to see the Texas Longhorns play football.
“It contradicts any notion that he’s a man of the people,” Taylor said. “When you see stuff like this, it makes it harder for Cruz to convince anybody that he’s just another working class stiff. He’s clearly someone who’s very comfortable in circles of wealth and power.”
Here’s a rundown of gifts Cruz reported taking in 2025:
•Jan. 10, 2025: One $450 Texas Longhorns ticket from Midland oilman Bill Holmes.
•March 7, 2025: Round-trip flight on commercial charter aircraft between Houston and Aspen, Colorado, with his wife and two children — a gift from developer Huffines and his wife Holly. Cruz’s disclosure lists the value at $9,015.
•April 11, 2025: Two Houston Astros tickets valued at $450 each gifted by billionaire donor Robert Marling Jr.
•June 19, 2025: Round-trip flight on privately owned aircraft between Teterboro, New Jersey, and Turks and Caicos from Mossavar-Rahmani. The flight was valued at $76,440.
•July 27, 2025: Round-trip flight for the Cruzes and their children on a privately owned aircraft between Conroe and San Antonio, a gift from Marling valued at $20,650.
•Sept. 9, 2025: Four concert tickets valued at $305 apiece for Cruz and his family from Marling.
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