At Goldman Sachs, Ted Cruz’s Wife Heidi Worked In ‘Wealth Management,’ Not ‘Helping Lift People Out Of Poverty’

A questioner at CNN’s town hall Wednesday night asked Sen. Ted Cruz what issues his wife would take on as first lady.

“She’s got a real heart for economic development,” he said. “Heidi has a real heart here in America for helping lift people out of poverty.”

As a Goldman Sachs executive, though, Heidi Cruz's work did not revolve around economic development for those on the bottom rung of the ladder: Her Wall Street job was focused on increasing the wealth of the already wealthy.

According to USA Today, Heidi Cruz served as a managing director at Goldman, and ran “the Houston wealth management unit, which handles portfolios for clients with an average net worth of $40 million." In a CNN interview in January, Heidi Cruz described that work in detail, saying she ran “the private wealth business in the Southwest from Houston.”

"The job that I have at that firm is, in many ways, in my view, the heart of helping people who have achieved the American dream," she said.

Employees of that same bank were collectively among the top donors to Ted Cruz’s 2012 Senate race. The bank also gave Cruz a personal loan that helped him finance his Senate race — which went undisclosed on his campaign finance reports and is now being reviewed by the Federal Election Commission.

During his crusade against the Affordable Care Act — in which he suggested federal workers should be forced to buy health insurance without government support — the Texas senator’s office revealed he was benefiting from a $20,000-a-year insurance plan from Goldman. In 2011, his wife also said that in her work with high-net-worth individuals, Ted Cruz would “help make the ask” to get them to invest their wealth with her at Goldman. “If you can marry somebody that is complementary to your business, it’s great networking,” she said.

In January, the Cruzes faced criticism from religious conservatives questioning the couple’s commitment to charity, after tax returns released by Cruz showed they contributed less than 1 percent of their income to charity between 2006 and 2010. An ad aired in Iowa, from a group called Americans United for Values, slammed the Cruzes for contributing less than the 10 percent tithe that many believe the Bible requires.