Ted Cruz’ college roommate was ‘The Last of Us’ showrunner Craig Mazin, whose legendary anti-Cruz roasts are deadlier than cordyceps

In the wake of a recent Ted Cruz tweet that absolutely no one asked for, in which he declared Sunday night’s Grammy performance of “Unholy” by Sam Smith and Kim Petras to be “evil,” we thought it might be a good time to hop into the ol’ wayback machine and take a look at what Cruz’s college roommate had to say about him. Because that roommate of yore, in case you didn’t already know, is one Craig Mazin.

Yes, that Craig Mazin, showrunner of The Last Of Us, whose already-legendary third episode features a love story of which the notably-homophobic Texas Senator also probably disapproves.

Mazin roomed with Cruz in 1988 during their first year at Princeton, and has been open about his ice-cold feelings about the Texas senator since at least 2012, when he tweeted the following:

“My freshman year college roommate Ted Cruz is going to be elected Senator. In case I hadn’t made it clear, he’s also a huge a**hole.”

And that was just the beginning. The next year, in 2013, Mazin offered up this backhanded compliment (which, to be fair, is the only kind of compliment Cruz deserves):

“One thing Ted Cruz is really good at: uniting people who otherwise disagree about everything else in a total hatred of Ted Cruz.”

That tweet may sound harsh, but it wasn’t nearly as lacerating as Mazin’s commentary in 2016, when Cruz was, for some reason, deeply invested in keeping sex toys illegal in Texas. “Ted Cruz thinks people don’t have a right to ‘stimulate their genitals,’” Mazin wrote. “I was his college roommate. This would be a new belief of his.”

And in 2017, when Cruz’ account liked a sexually-explicit tweet:

“Sadly, the fact that Ted Cruz jacks off to mediocre porn spam is the most human thing we can say about him. This is actually his high point.”

Sadly, Mazin is no longer active on Twitter (“Locked and parked. I’m never here,” says the bio on his dormant account), but Newsweek helpfully compiled some of his greatest anti-Cruz missiles back in 2020. That was the year that Mazin took issue with Cruz getting into a Twitter feud with actor Ron Perlman, who had made disparaging remarks about Cruz’ BFF, Sen. Jim Jordan from Ohio.

“You’re a United States Senator, @tedcruz. Stop sh***ing out of your mouth and do your job with dignity oh who am I kidding you’ve been this pathetic since 1988, and you will remain this pathetic until you’re gone.”

Cruz has never, to our knowledge, publicly clapped back at Mazin, which is the best indicator there is that the senator learned at least one thing in college.

The Last of Us, meanwhile, is now airing, and streaming, on HBO.