Long before Ted Cruz became a senator from Texas, he was a gamer. He’s known for being pugilistic on the Senate floor, but sometimes he’d rather be fighting cartoon zombies on his iPhone. 
 
 It’s an uncommon lens through which to view Cruz, a controversial conservative figure who is now running for the highest political office in the country. Cruz’s video game habit fits into a largely hidden geek persona that lurks just behind his better-known public reputation as an obstinate Tea Party firebrand. 
 
 At the moment, Cruz is playing “Plants vs. Zombies,” a game where users collect sunlight points to feed plants who fight off waves of zombies; “Candy Crush,” the puzzle game where he claims he’s in the 217th level; and “The Creeps!,” a tower defense game. 
 
 His video game addiction is so severe, Cruz says, he has to proactively deny himself the ability to spend time on it. 
 
 “I don’t have a console, mostly as a time management tool, because if I had one, I would use it far too much,” he told The Daily Beast. 
 
 The Texas Republican explains the origins of his love for video games as a generational phenomenon. He ticks off his favorite games at his childhood arcade: “Galaga,” “Space Invaders,” “Centipede.” 
 
 “I was a kid growing up in the ’70s and ’80s. I had a Nintendo, an Atari,” he said. “I still remember the Christmas we got our first ‘Pong’ game.” 
 
 His love for video games evolved over time as he entered college, then law school. David Panton, who was Cruz’s roommate for 4½ years through Princeton and later Harvard Law, recalls all-nighters spent on “Super Mario Brothers” and Japanese fighting games. 
 
 Putting aside debate and school government, Panton said, “our favorite activity…was video games.” 
 
 “We would spend many hours playing video games, often until the sun came up. In reality, Ted was a much better player than I was—he beat me in everything—but I think I was sufficiently competitive that he felt somewhat challenged,” Panton told The Daily Beast. “I’m a far better video game player today as a result of Ted Cruz.” 
 
 Video games have only once entered into Cruz’s comments about government and public policy: in December, when he publicly mused about the overuse of drones in warfare. 
 
 “There are also concerns from the perspective of national security. No administration has used drones as aggressively as has the Obama administration. And I’m worried about what I would call video-game warfare,” Cruz said at a Foreign Policy Initiative forum in Washington, D.C. 
 
 Here’s where video games help: Cruz suffers from a perception of rigidity. When asked a question, his responses are always airtight and measured, the mark of a former debate champion. Often these conversations seem stilted and rehearsed. Unlike a more gregarious politician like Senator John McCain, Cruz doesn’t make unscripted jokes or pal around much. 
 
 If asked a question Wednesday that he was previously asked on Monday, he will repeat his original answer nearly word for word, as if it were memorized, raising the risk of questions about how genuine he really is. 
 
 His passion for video games, and the way he uses them to connect with his children, cuts through some of that. 
 
 “I play with my daughters,” he told The Daily Beast. “One of the fun things that I do with Caroline and Catherine is we get on the iPhone or the iPad and play games. Drives my wife crazy. She doesn’t like it, but both girls like to curl up and play games. In our household, I’m the one in charge of taking the girls to Chuck E. Cheese, and it’s not much of a secret that I don’t mind doing so. I’m trying to get brownie points from [his wife] Heidi for taking them to Chuck E. Cheese, and she’s like, ‘What, are you kidding? You have more fun there than they do.’” 
 
 Geeks are cool now, they rule the world. So Cruz’s love for video games is an admission that presidential candidates have only really been able to make in the past few years. 
 
 But there is one time a video game was used against Cruz. In Texas’s 2012 Senate Republican primary, David Dewhurst launched an attack ad accusing Cruz of being “PAC-Man.” Dewhurst used the classic video game and accompanying theme song to highlight the funds Cruz received from super PACs in Washington, D.C. The ad wasn’t enough to put Dewhurst over the top, however: Cruz ended up winning by 14 points. ||||| Long before Ted Cruz became a senator from Texas, he was a gamer. He’s known for being pugilistic on the Senate floor, but sometimes he’d rather be fighting cartoon zombies on his iPhone. 
 
 It’s an uncommon lens through which to view Cruz, a controversial conservative figure who is now running for the highest political office in the country. Cruz’s video game habit fits into a largely hidden geek persona that lurks just behind his better-known public reputation as an obstinate Tea Party firebrand. 
 
 At the moment, Cruz is playing “Plants vs. Zombies,” a game where users collect sunlight points to feed plants who fight off waves of zombies; “Candy Crush,” the puzzle game where he claims he’s in the 217th level; and “The Creeps!,” a tower defense game. 
 
 His video game addiction is so severe, Cruz says, he has to proactively deny himself the ability to spend time on it. 
 
 “I don’t have a console, mostly as a time management tool, because if I had one, I would use it far too much,” he told The Daily Beast. 
 
 The Texas Republican explains the origins of his love for video games as a generational phenomenon. He ticks off his favorite games at his childhood arcade: “Galaga,” “Space Invaders,” “Centipede.” 
 
 “I was a kid growing up in the ’70s and ’80s. I had a Nintendo, an Atari,” he said. “I still remember the Christmas we got our first ‘Pong’ game.” 
 
 His love for video games evolved over time as he entered college, then law school. David Panton, who was Cruz’s roommate for 4½ years through Princeton and later Harvard Law, recalls all-nighters spent on “Super Mario Brothers” and Japanese fighting games. 
 
 Putting aside debate and school government, Panton said, “our favorite activity…was video games.” 
 
 “We would spend many hours playing video games, often until the sun came up. In reality, Ted was a much better player than I was—he beat me in everything—but I think I was sufficiently competitive that he felt somewhat challenged,” Panton told The Daily Beast. “I’m a far better video game player today as a result of Ted Cruz.” 
 
 Video games have only once entered into Cruz’s comments about government and public policy: in December, when he publicly mused about the overuse of drones in warfare. 
 
 “There are also concerns from the perspective of national security. No administration has used drones as aggressively as has the Obama administration. And I’m worried about what I would call video-game warfare,” Cruz said at a Foreign Policy Initiative forum in Washington, D.C. 
 
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 Here’s where video games help: Cruz suffers from a perception of rigidity. When asked a question, his responses are always airtight and measured, the mark of a former debate champion. Often these conversations seem stilted and rehearsed. Unlike a more gregarious politician like Senator John McCain, Cruz doesn’t make unscripted jokes or pal around much. 
 
 If asked a question Wednesday that he was previously asked on Monday, he will repeat his original answer nearly word for word, as if it were memorized, raising the risk of questions about how genuine he really is. 
 
 His passion for video games, and the way he uses them to connect with his children, cuts through some of that. 
 
 “I play with my daughters,” he told The Daily Beast. “One of the fun things that I do with Caroline and Catherine is we get on the iPhone or the iPad and play games. Drives my wife crazy. She doesn’t like it, but both girls like to curl up and play games. In our household, I’m the one in charge of taking the girls to Chuck E. Cheese, and it’s not much of a secret that I don’t mind doing so. I’m trying to get brownie points from [his wife] Heidi for taking them to Chuck E. Cheese, and she’s like, ‘What, are you kidding? You have more fun there than they do.’” 
 
 Geeks are cool now, they rule the world. So Cruz’s love for video games is an admission that presidential candidates have only really been able to make in the past few years. 
 
 But there is one time a video game was used against Cruz. In Texas’s 2012 Senate Republican primary, David Dewhurst launched an attack ad accusing Cruz of being “PAC-Man.” Dewhurst used the classic video game and accompanying theme song to highlight the funds Cruz received from super PACs in Washington, D.C. The ad wasn’t enough to put Dewhurst over the top, however: Cruz ended up winning by 14 points. ||||| FAIRFIELD, Iowa — Ted Cruz challenged Donald Trump on Tuesday night to a one-on-one debate "anytime between now and the Iowa caucus." 
 
 Less than an hour after Trump’s campaign told reporters the front-runner will skip Thursday’s GOP debate, Cruz, looking to have his moment with Trump, suggested to a crowd in Fairfield, Iowa, that “Donald is a fragile soul" and is "scared to face Megyn Kelly" — the FOX News moderator who riled Trump in the first Republican debate back in August. 
 
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 "We’ll do 90 minutes, Lincoln-Douglas, mano-a-mano, Donald and me," Cruz said. "He can lay out his vision for this country, and I can lay out my vision for this country in front of the men and women of Iowa." 
 
 Related: Trump Won't Attend FOX News Debate, Campaign Manager Says 
 
 Cruz, who has shied away from non-issue attacks on Trump, suggested Trump’s "hair might stand on end” if Kelly "asked him mean questions." 
 
 The Texas senator also questioned why Trump would be "afraid" to debate him head-to-head. 
 
 “He’s been saying this past week he thinks I’m stupid,” Cruz slyly said on conservative Mark Levin’s radio program also on Tuesday night. “He should do very well with someone who is so stupid — away from moderators he’s so afraid of.” 
 
 Cruz furthered his attack on Trump’s decision to bow out of the debate, asking Levin how Trump would handle friction with other world leaders. 
 
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 "I promise you Putin is a lot scarier than Megyn Kelly," Cruz said. "I’d like to hear Donald explain to the American people and to the people of Iowa how he is prepared to be commander-in-chief if he’s terrified by a television host." 
 
 Trump has just recently faced increased scrutiny by the other candidates over his past positions, which used to skew quite liberal. 
 
 The Cruz campaign also released a TV ad on Monday beginning to hit Trump for the view changes. ||||| Ew, Dad! That’s gross! 
 
 With his two young daughters just feet away from him, Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz told the bizarre story of how he watched porn with Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. 
 
 THE ONE TIME TED CRUZ TRIED TO BAN SEX TOYS IN TEXAS 
 
 The Texas senator, his wife Heidi and their daughters — 8-year-old Caroline and 5-year-old Catherine — all took the stage at a CNN town hall Wednesday night, which also featured a strange story about Cruz's love of canned soup. 
 
 Before discussing his relationship with his wife and Caroline’s upcoming birthday party, Cruz discussed how he once had to watch porn as part of his duties as a law clerk for the Supreme Court, a strange tale he first recounted in his 2015 memoir. 
 
 Ted Cruz, his wife Heidi and their daughters spoke at a CNN town hall Wednesday night. (CNN) 
 
 “The chapter begins with me watching pornography on the Internet with Sandra Day O’Connor, which was a bit of a bizarre experience,” he told Anderson Cooper, adding that the court librarians prepared a lesson for the justices and their clerks to demonstrate how the abundance of Internet porn ahead of a case considering the regulation of such graphic material. 
 
 CRUZ CAMPAIGN RELEASES NEGATIVE RADIO AD TO RIP DE BLASIO 
 
 The librarians switched off Internet filters and quickly found hardcore videos by searching the term “cantaloupe,” he said. 
 
 “And Justice O’Connor — I still remember — she leaned forward, and she squinted, and she said, �?Oh, my!’” Cruz continued. 
 
 New York Daily News front pages on the presidential election 
 
 Little Caroline and Catherine were seated in the first row of the audience as their dad told the cringe-worthy story. 
 
 The retelling wasn’t the only awkward moment: Cruz’s wife and daughters had more strange stories to share about the family patriarch. 
 
 Heidi Cruz told the audience how her husband perplexingly bought 100 cans of soup after they returned from their honeymoon because he was afraid she wouldn’t cook. 
 
 “I was completely shocked to see that he arrived back at our apartment with literally 100 cans of Campbell’s Chunky soup,” she said. “We had a tough conversation about it. I said, �?You don’t buy 100 of anything, much less canned soup. We can’t do this. I’ll be making things.’ He said, �?No, I know you. You won’t be making things.’” 
 
 Cruz talked about the time he watched porn with Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images) 
 
 The newlywed wife promptly returned the stockpile of stews and called her mother to gab about her husband’s strange shopping spree — but her mom told her she should have let Cruz keep his coup. 
 
 CRUZ RIPPED FOR HIS 'NEW YORK VALUES' INSULT IN THE BRONX 
 
 “So when Ted opened the pantry, I had to quickly tell him that I would go back and buy those cans again,” she added. 
 
 Cruz’s daughters also had some not-so-flattering stories about their dad. 
 
 Heidi Cruz also told a strange story about how her husband once bought 100 cans of soup. (BILL WECHTER/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 Caroline — who turned 8 on Thursday — said she has a video of her dad in a pink feather boa and granny panties. The Texas dad put on the goofy getup as part of a dress up game at a father-daughter picnic, she said. 
 
 “It was on a videotape the whole time,” the oldest Cruz daughter said. “And that was a class video that they’re sending out to all the parents.” 
 
 Caroline also talked about her upcoming birthday party — a Build-a-Bear bash featuring a chocolate cake — and her love for Taylor Swift. Younger Catherine was mostly silent as she sat on her mom’s lap. 
 
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– Donald Trump may be preparing for Thursday night's GOP debate by scarfing cheeseburgers, but Ted Cruz has his own preparation strategies, he tells Politico in a look at how well the candidate is doing during the debates. While the site notes that the Texas senator's "brain trust has gathered more informally around tables to talk about expected lines of inquiry and attack" rather than hold mock debates, it's what Cruz does the day of the debate that's somewhat unexpected. Well, maybe not the Bible-reading part, or the part where he simply hangs out with his wife, Heidi, and two young daughters to "decompress," Politico notes. Instead, there's another stress reliever the self-confessed video-game addict indulges in: playing games on his iPhone, with Plants vs. Zombies 2 and TowerMadness 2 currently claiming the top spots in his game queue. (Check out what his favorite childhood video games were on the Daily Beast.)