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Fresh faces to watch in 2013: Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz gets why Mitt Romney lost.
Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Ted Cruz answers a question from a television reporter Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Houston.  (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Ted Cruz answers a question from a television reporter Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Houston.

Ted Cruz gets why Mitt Romney lost.

"I think Mitt Romney's a good man, a man of character, a man who ran a hard, disciplined campaign," he said. "But Republicans nationally, the story we conveyed, was 47% are stuck in a static world. We don't have to worry about them is what that clip famously said," he said at a conservative dinner, as reported by The Atlantic. "I cannot think of an idea more antithetical to the American principles this country was founded on."

Getting votes from middle class Americans—particularly Latinos—is exactly what the GOP hopes Cruz can do after, particularly after Latinos put their political priorities back onto the negotiating table during the last election with a huge voter turnout.

The newly elected Texas Senator will serve as vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but he may also be gearing up for a presidential run in 2016. The rumors of a run heated up following a speech he gave in late November about rebranding the Republican party: “We need to embrace what I call ‘Opportunity Conservatism.’ We need to conceptualize, we need to articulate conservative domestic policy with a laser focus on opportunity, on easing the means of ascent up the economic ladder,” he said.

Over at Bloomberg, one editor dismissed the speech as "bonkers," particularly for the policy points he hits during the speech: Gun rights, privatizing Social Security, and deflationary policy. In the midst of a massive economic crisis and a renewed post-Newtown push for gun control, Cruz's views will put him front and center in the 113th Congress's policy debates.

Next up: Elizabeth Warren and the Nightmare on Wall Street