Ted Cruz makes endorsement in SC Congress race

A U.S. senator and former presidential candidate has made an endorsement in a South Carolina congressional race.

Ted Cruz, R-Texas, offered his endorsement Tuesday to Lee Bright in the 4th District GOP runoff.

“I’m asking voters in South Carolina’s 4th District to carefully consider the choices before them, and to stand with the candidate who best reflects their conservative convictions," Cruz said in a press release from Bright's campaign. "In the 4th District Congressional runoff, I am proud to endorse Lee Bright, and I urge voters there to join me by supporting him.”

Bright came in first in the Republican primary last week in a 13-candidate field to replace Rep. Trey Gowdy, who is retiring. The former senator from Spartanburg faces current state Sen. William Timmons, R-Greenville, in the June 26 runoff.

Bright has picked up other endorsements from sitting members of Congress, including Iowa's Rep. Steve King and Kentucky's Rep. Thomas Massie.

He also received the endorsement of four of the other candidates running in the Republican primary last week — Stephen Brown, James Epley, Dan Albert, and Barry Bell — who combined polled almost 17 percent of the vote. Bright polled 25 percent in the first round, while Timmons had 19 percent of the vote, less than 400 votes ahead of state Rep. Dan Hamilton.

Bright was a two-term member of the state Senate from 2008 to 2016. He previously challenged U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in the 2014 GOP primary.

In 2016, Bright proposed an unsuccessful "bathroom bill," modeled on a similar North Carolina law, that would have limited transgender people's ability to use public bathrooms.

Last month, Bright reiterated his support of the bathroom bill at a GOP forum in Greenville, telling the crowd, "You're either a man or a woman — and if you’re confused, you’ve got an issue with mental illness."

Bright was unseated in the 2016 Republican state Senate primary by current Sen. Scott Talley, R-Spartanburg.

This story was originally published June 19, 2018 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Ted Cruz makes endorsement in SC Congress race."