Ted Cruz says he does not want a spot on the Supreme Court

Less than a week after President Donald Trump included U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on a list of 20 potential Supreme Court nominees, Cruz said he isn’t interested in a spot on the high court.

In a Fox News interview Sunday, Cruz was asked if he wanted the job.

“I don’t,” he replied. “It’s humbling to be included on the list. I’m grateful that the president has that confidence in me, but it’s not the desire of my heart.”

Cruz continued that he’d rather remain in politics, working to confirm constitutionalist justices to the court.

“That’s not where I want to serve,” he said. “I want to stay fighting right where I am in the U.S. Senate.”

Although there is no Supreme Court vacancy, Trump released the list of potential nominees Wednesday in an effort to assure his base that he would choose from reliably conservative lawyers.

The president also named another Texan and Cruz protege, James Ho, a judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Ho, appointed by Trump and confirmed by the Senate in 2017, would be the first Asian American on the nation’s highest court if he actually were nominated and confirmed.

Trump has appointed two judges to the Supreme Court Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and observers generally consider the court to have a 5-4 conservative majority.