Peter King will boycott GOP dinner headlined by Ted Cruz

Citing Cruz's vote against Hurricane Sandy relief funding, King said Cruz "made it easy" to skip the fundraiser

Published May 28, 2013 8:33PM (EDT)

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he will not attend a big Republican fundraising dinner, because although his schedule might have prevented it anyway, once he heard Sen. Ted Cruz was the headliner, it "made it easy."

“I don’t think we should be acknowledging people who are voting against us in our hour of need,” King told BuzzFeed, referring to Cruz's vote against federal relief funding in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

“Once I found it was him,” King continued, “I decided not to go. I don’t know if I would have gone or not because of scheduling things, but that made it easy once I found out it was Ted Cruz.”

King has been calling for New York Republicans to freeze out those in the party who voted against the funding bill, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.


By Jillian Rayfield

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

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Hurricane Sandy New York Peter King Republicans Ted Cruz