Richard Linklater Ad Calls Out Ted Cruz for Not Being ‘Tough as Texas’ and Letting Trump Bully Him — Watch

Filmmaker Richard Linklater has thrown his hat into the political ring by directing a new anti-Ted Cruz advertisement. The video launched October 8 and is sponsored by the Fire Ted Cruz PAC. Texas senator Cruz is seeking re-election this November over Democrat Beto O’Rourke.

The advertisement, “Is Ted Cruz ‘Tough as Texas?,'” reunites Linklater with Sonny Carl Davis, who appeared in a small role in the director’s 2011 movie “Bernie.” Davis sits at a diner table and mocks Cruz and his “Tough as Texas” campaign slogan. “Somebody left something on my door the other day that said, ‘Ted Cruz: tough as Texas.’ If somebody called my wife a dog, and said my daddy was in on the Kennedy assassination, I wouldn’t be kissin’ their ass.”

Davis is referring to the fact that Cruz continues to support Donald Trump despite being consistently bullied by Trump when the two competed against each other to be the Republican presidential nominee. Trump made a series of comments about Cruz’s wife, Heidi, and supported a conspiracy theory placing Cruz’s father with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before President Kennedy’s death.

The ad ends with Davis saying that if Cruz really was tough as Texas, he would “stick [his] finger in their chest and give them a few choice words. Or you drag their ass out by the woodshed and kick their ass.”

Linklater is a born and raised Texan and continues to live and make films in Austin. Watch the advertisement in the video below.