Ted Cruz will write a memoir

Cruz's advance for the book would reportedly be the largest for a conservative politician in years, surpassing Sarah Palin's.

If the laws of political memoir-writing are correct, Ted Cruz is running in the next presidential election cycle.

That’s because the Republican Senator from Texas has signed on to write a political memoir with HarperCollins, and as we have learned from election cycles past, party hopeful + political memoir = presidential run.

And if Sen. Cruz’s advance is any indication, folks have confidence in the Tea Party darling: A report in the Washington Examiner listed his advance at $1.5 million, and while literary agent Keith Urbahn declined to confirm the report, he has said the number is “close.”

“The advance would be the biggest for a conservative politician in years, even more than the $1.25 million that former 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin received after her sensational rise in Republican politics,” the Examiner reported. 

HarperCollins reportedly won out in a four-day book auction last weekend in which several publishing giants – including St. Martin’s, Simon & Schuster, and Newsmax – fought to sign on the high-profile senator.

The book, as yet unwritten and untitled, will cover Cruz’s past as well as his vision for Washington and the future of the country.

"I'm looking forward to the opportunity to share my story and to tell the truth about what's happening in Washington," Cruz told The Associated Press.

"We're having a national debate right now about the direction our country should go, and I am eager to participate in that debate through any medium possible. And a book can serve as an effective vehicle for conveying the positive hopeful optimistic vision for America that I believe together can turn this nation around."

One of the party’s most popular, yet polarizing figures, Cruz is the first Hispanic senator from Texas. Elected in 2012, he is also a Tea Party favorite and an outspoken player in several major Washington fights, including last year’s government shutdown and efforts to repeal Obamacare.

With his book deal, Cruz establishes himself as a likely 2016 presidential candidate, joining former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Wis. Rep. Paul Ryan, Fl. Ky. Sen. Marco Rubio, and Sen. Rand Paul, all of whom have forthcoming or already-published books.

Now if we could only get statistician-extraordinaire Nate Silver to determine the correlation, if any, between book advances and sales and success in the presidential primary.

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.