Sen. Cruz Announces Staff Updates

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today announced recent senior staff hires. He has named Judd Stone as Chief Counsel, who joined in February, William “Billy” Gribbin Jr. as Communications Strategist and Chief Speechwriter, who joined in March, and Omri Ceren as National Security Advisor, who joins at the end of April, all of whom will serve in his Washington, D.C. office. 

“I am grateful to have Judd, Billy, and Omri joining our team to defend and promote the interests of Texans in Washington, D.C.” Sen. Cruz said. “Judd’s career defending the Constitution and Billy’s experience crafting strong conservative messages will be great assets to our team. And Texas will be well served with Omri’s expertise regarding the threats our nation faces abroad, as we work to protect and defend our country. I look forward to working with each of them to amplify the voices of Texans in Washington, to defend our values, and to ensure that freedom, opportunity, and respect for the Constitution live strong in our words and our policies.”

Stone comes to Sen. Cruz’s office from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he practiced before the United States Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals nationwide, focusing on constitutional issues. Before that, he served as a law clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, practiced at a D.C. litigation boutique, served as an Olin-Searle-Smith Fellow in Law at Harvard Law School, and clerked for then-Chief Judge Edith Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He graduated from Northwestern Law School in 2010 and from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2007, after growing up in Collin County and Bexar County, Texas.

Before joining Sen. Cruz’s office, Gribbin served as Director of Speechwriting for Secretary Ben Carson at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Before that, he was Writer and Special Projects Coordinator for Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint, and has written for various leaders across the conservative movement. Gribbin earned a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA.

Ceren joins Sen. Cruz’s office after serving as a Managing Director at The Israel Project, a DC-based organization that deals with Middle East issues. He is also a fellow at the Claremont Institute and a PhD candidate at University of Southern California's Annenberg School. He has broadly published and appeared as an expert commentator on national security issues.

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