A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz responded to online criticism after Cruz was spotted on a flight to California Tuesday, ahead of an arctic storm that is set to hit Texas this weekend, saying he was on a work trip scheduled weeks ago.

"He will be back in Texas before the storm is projected to hit," the spokesperson said in a statement. They declined to answer where Cruz was headed in California and why.

A photograph of Cruz aboard the flight began circulating early Wednesday morning, racking up 3.3 million views by midday. One X user wrote, "You can count on (Cruz) to be on a flight to somewhere warm and tropical and (sic) the first sign of Mother Nature."

Houston city officials warned residents Wednesday to ready for temperatures to dip this weekend into the low 20s or upper teens, along with wind chill in the low teens or single digits.

Cruz, a Texas Republican, has taken criticism for flying out of Texas around inclement weather before. In 2021 he flew to Cancun with his daughters following a winter storm that left millions of Texans without power, explaining he had "two girls who have been cold for two days and haven’t had heater power, and they’re saying, ‘Hey, look, we don’t have school why don’t we go, let’s get out of here.’"

He later apologized, saying, "It was obviously a mistake and in hindsight I wouldn’t have done it."

The photo of Cruz flying Tuesday was posted by Shea Jordan Smith, who previously worked for late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat.

"Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was spotted earlier today, January 20, 2026, on a plane heading to Laguna Beach as the state of Texas braces for a rare ice threat and arctic cold front," he wrote.

This article originally published at Ted Cruz responds to photo of him en route to California before Texas winter storm.