Ted Cruz was vacationing in Greece when the deadly Texas floods broke out. His office says he took the first flight home.

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

---

WASHINGTON — As Texans woke up July 4 to the news that flooding in the Hill Country had turned deadly, Sen. Ted Cruz was on a pre-planned vacation in Greece with his family.

The senator arrived back in Texas late Sunday night — the soonest he was able to return, according to a spokesperson for his office.

Cruz was spotted Saturday morning — evening, in Greece — visiting the Parthenon in Athens.

“The Senator was already in the middle of preplanned family vacation travel overseas when the flooding occurred on July 4,” the spokesperson said, noting Cruz spoke with federal and state officials within hours of the flood to coordinate federal resources for the search-and-rescue effort. Cruz and his team also “worked closely with local officials and with families of missing girls throughout that time,” the spokesperson said.

Cruz’s office declined to say when he purchased his flight home. His spokesperson also declined to say when Cruz boarded his return flight or arrived in Texas, specifying only that he left Greece “early Sunday” Central time and landed in San Antonio “late Sunday.”

His flight took off about a day and a half after local officials announced the death toll had reached 24 with many still missing.

Cruz made his first on-site appearance Monday morning, hours before the Daily Beast detailed the senator’s Athens visit and set off social media backlash, with some invoking Cruz’s 2021 trip to Cancún in the midst of Winter Storm Uri.

During that episode, the senator left Texas after the storm had hit and as many residents lacked power and water, which he admitted was “obviously a mistake.”

From Greece, Cruz helped coordinate the federal response, speaking Friday afternoon Central time with President Donald Trump, Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd, according to his office.

Meanwhile in Texas, Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, joined emergency officials in Kerrville on Saturday for an on-the-ground briefing and to provide updates alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and state officials.

While in Kerrville, Cruz surveyed the damage, attended a press conference and appeared on Fox News. He noted that his daughters had long attended a summer camp near Camp Mystic — and that he had been in the area last week to pick one of them up.