Ted Cruz Moves Salon Owner to Tears

The Texas senator supports Shelley Luther, who was jailed for nearly 2 days
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted May 9, 2020 3:00 PM CDT

Most haircuts are just haircuts—but not this one. On Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz visited a North Texas salon whose owner had spent nearly 48 hours in jail for breaking the state's stay-at-home order. "We're thrilled to be with you and know the whole State of Texas is standing with you, so thank you for your courage," Cruz told salon owner Shelley Luther while getting his first snip in three months, per CBS Dallas Fort-Worth. The Republican joked that his hair was getting so long, his wife said he'd "start bringing mullets back" without a fresh cut. Luther was moved to tears by support from Cruz and his family: "It's a nice gesture," she says, per Newsweek. "His family actually called my boyfriend and prayed for him for 20 minutes while I was in jail."

Of course, there's more to all this. On April 24, Luther ignored a cease-and-desist letter to close her business during the coronavirus pandemic. Dragged before a judge and ordered to apologize, she refused and got tossed in jail—where she stayed until state Attorney General Ken Paxton paid her $7,000 fine and Gov. Greg Abbott altered his executive order to stop stay-openers from getting arrested. USA Today reports that Luther was even praised by President Trump, who appeared Friday on Fox and Friends and called her an "incredible representative for a large group of people that want to do the same thing, they want to get back to work." Yet the coronavirus lives on in Texas, where more than 1,000 cases have been logged daily since the stay-at-home order ran out on May 1. (More social distancing stories.)

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