Two people in Ted Cruz’s Houston campaign office were sent to the hospital after being exposed to a piece of mail containing a powdery white substance on Tuesday — an incident that the FBI is now investigating.
The incident happened at the Phoenix Tower office building on Southwest Freeway in Houston, ABC 13 reported. Officials said that the entire 9th floor of the building was evacuated after the incident, and the elevators were shut down for some time. Police and Hazmat teams were sent to the building, and the fire department tested for hazardous materials. All tests came up negative for toxic substances.
Authorities did not reveal the identities of the two people who were sent to the hospital, but did say that neither worked for Ted Cruz’s campaign. Their condition was not immediately known.
The Republican Senator is up for re-election, and is now locked in a tighter-than-expected race with Democrat Beto O’Rourke.
Cruz has become a personal target for some of his opponents during the campaign, with a small group of protesters even chasing the Senator and his wife away from a Washington restaurant last week. A video posted to Twitter showed the protesters attacking both Cruz and his wife over the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Republicans had called into question the allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh, but the group that chased down Ted Cruz and his wife called on them to believe his accusers.
“We believe survivors!” one of the people called out to Ted Cruz.
Cruz, however, had said that the allegations against Kavanaugh were “serious” and called for a thorough investigation of the claims being made by Christine Blasey Ford, Politico reported. Though he had initially expressed strong support for Kavanaugh, Cruz had not made any public statements of doubt against Ford at the time he was targeted.
The group eventually was able to force the couple to leave the restaurant.
Afterward, even Cruz’s opponent decried the tactics — and said that Ted Cruz does not deserve to be harassed.
“Not right that Senator Cruz and his wife Heidi were surrounded and forced to leave a restaurant last night because of protesters. The Cruz family should be treated with respect,” the Texas congressman tweeted the day after the video appeared online.
So far, Ted Cruz’s campaign has not released a statement on the incident surrounding the powdery substance. The Houston Chronicle reported that the local FBI office is looking into the incident and its particulars.
