When then Senior Senator from Texas Kay Bailey Hutchison announced she would not seek a fourth term in U.S. Senate, little was known about her successor. As the Solicitor General of Texas going up against sitting Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, very few political pundits were willing to consider Ted Cruz to be a serious candidate, let alone a competitor. Yet in the days, weeks and months that followed, Cruz's campaign only continued to build traction, receiving endorsements from prominent GOP delegates such as Ron Paul, Jim DeMint, Pat Toomey, and Tom Coburn, the former star of the Princeton debate went on to defeat Dewhurst by 14 points in the runoff for the Republican nomination. A feat that is considered by many to be the biggest electoral upset of 2012. After soundly doing away with his Democratic opponent Paul Sadler, the miracle was achieved, and Cruz found himself roaming the halls of Capitol Hill at the dawn of the 113nth congress. His much anticipated stardom glittering as brights as its marble pillars.

Yet, Ted Cruz's tenure in the Senate has been far from ideal. For him and his constituents. A Constitutional Conservative and a champion of the Tea Party Movement, the smooth talking Texan originally born in Canada sought to establish himself as the American People's ultimate maverick of freedom. But despite asserting himself early in his senatorial careers, Cruz struggled to ingratiate himself with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. His frequent willingness to use ascorbic rhetoric to criticize various members of congress caused him to create powerful enemies in the form of House Speaker John Boehner whom Cruz dubbed as a member of the "surrender caucus" after the Representative from Ohio forged a bipartisan agreement with Democrats to lift the debt ceiling through March 2017.

However, Cruz is best remembered for playing a vital role in initiating the 2013 Government shutdown. Delivering a 21 hour floor speech in a last ditch effort to uphold a budget that would defund Obamacare, the Texas Senator rambled, spewing off quotes from Duck Dynasty and reading his colleagues "Green Eggs and Ham", before yielding the floor. While this antic was met with enthusiasm by Cruz's supporters -- with Time Magazine going as far as to naming him "Person of the Year" -- the senator's push proved to be feeble as Cruz joined 99 of his other colleagues to vote in favour of the ACA. And after yielding the floor, Cruz once again found himself at odds with Senators from both parties, attracting reprimanding remarks from Harry Reid, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham.

Nevertheless, just when many believed Ted Cruz's obstructionist fallacy was something of the past, it took just two years before the senator reestablshed himself as a figure of discord. Unhappy with Mitch McConnell after the Senate Majority Leader agreed to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank when the Senate voted to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Cruz took to the floor. Delivering an eight minute floor speech where he called the Senator from Kentucky "a liar". Occurring on the eave of Presidential primaries where Cruz was expected to be a top contender and the candidate with the best chance of defeating Donald Trump, amidst the Texan's scathing unpopularity, many Republican Senators came forward saying they would support Cruz if he would apologize for his remarks made towards the Senate Leader. However Cruz refused, leading his colleagues to either abandon him, or endorse the orange-faced, loud-mouthed New Yorker -- causing Cruz the Repbulican Presidential Candidacy.

Now in the midst of the 115nth, Cruz still has nothing to show for his efforts save for getting soundly shutdown by former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates when he tried to question her about her decision not to defend Trump's travel ban at a judicial hearing concerning Russian interference in the U.S. Election. With constituents becoming increasingly disgruntled with Cruz's lack of results, rumours have begun to swirl that Rick Perry may challenge him in the 2018 GOP Senatorial primary, while few political pundits have been bold enough to declare that Congressman Beto O'Rourke has a fighting chance to bring the Democrats their first Senatorial Seat in Texas since 1993.

With one more year left in his first term, Cruz's tenure in the U.S. Senate has been lackluster to say the least. Currently attached to ACA replacement bill that appears more likely to fail with each passing day, one has to wonder if the Senator from the Lone State State has worn out the last of his eroding luster. Or if he ever had any at all.