ALL HATE, NO CATTLE:

Maybe some of it is his attitude toward Houston. The Cruzes have never seemed all that interested in weaving themselves into the social fabric of the city -- something that, frankly, has never been that hard to do. Mr. Cruz left town in the late '90s to make his way in Washington and then in Austin, and didn't return until 2008. He soon started looking at a run for state attorney general, before laying more ambitious plans. The fact that he and his wife, Heidi, and their two young daughters live in a luxury high rise seems telling in that just-passing-through way. (Robert Durst owned a condo in the same building, though he never moved in. Perhaps just as well: Try to conjure a Cruz-Durst elevator conversation.)

Then, too, Houstonians detest people who give themselves airs, probably because so many people here -- like Mr. Cruz himself -- are self-made. Mr. Cruz maybe missed that memo. A woman who, as a high school student, met the young Mr. Cruz in a study group recalled the encounter in an essay on Medium this way: "When we are introduced, it's the first time I feel as if someone has sized me up, found me wanting and moved on -- all before I finish 'hello.' " Mr. Cruz seems to have made a similar impression on a lot of locals, including some of the crazy-rich Houstonians who have zillions parked with Goldman Sachs in funds managed by Mrs. Cruz.

It didn't start out this way. The Houston Chronicle was enthused in 2012. "He is young, smart, telegenic and Hispanic," it purred after Mr. Cruz was a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention that summer. But more recently, the paper -- ever loyal to the Bushes -- has cooled to Mr. Cruz.

After his star turn in the government shutdown of 2013, The Chronicle ran an editorial titled "Why We Miss Kay Bailey Hutchison." Ms. Hutchison, of course, was Mr. Cruz's highly effective three-term Republican predecessor in the Senate. "Cruz has been part of the problem in specific situations where Hutchison would have been part of the solution," it noted.

Last year, it criticized the junior senator again: Mr. Cruz didn't seem to be "in Washington to get things done for his state," which even other conservative ideologues from Texas, like Phil Gramm and John Cornyn, have managed to do in the Senate.

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