Ted Cruz 2016 Websites: TedCruz2016.com, TedCruz2016.org Display Beaches Instead Of Official Campaign Page

If you visited TedCruz2016.com or TedCruz2016.org on Wednesday, you saw changing images of a road and an overcast sky, a city skyline, a beach, and a setting sun on the ocean. But that's not how it was supposed to work out after the Republican Texas senator and GOP presidential candidate reached an agreement with the domains’ owner to redirect traffic to Cruz’s official campaign website, TedCruz.org, according to Politico. The transfer was supposed to happen late Tuesday night.

“Our client, after some consideration, didn’t want to hold the domain hostage for any reason,” Troy Kadavy, the owner of the Omaha, Nebraska-based digital marketing firm 92West, told Politico. Kadavy said his client bought the domains in 2012, a year after Cruz was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2011. The anonymous owner of TedCruz2016.com and TedCruz2016.org is a fan of his and agreed to redirect traffic to TedCruz.org without any compensation.

The deal with the domain owner prevents Cruz from further embarrassment. Before his Monday campaign announcement, his team failed to snatch up TedCruz.com, which is not only apparently owned by somebody not fond of Cruz, but the site encourages visitors to support U.S. President Barack Obama and advocates for immigration reform. Cruz has been one of Obama’s fiercest critics in the Senate and has called the president’s executive actions on immigration “unconstitutional amnesty.”

The TedCruz.com misstep was seen as a signal that Cruz’s campaign may not be ready for a national race. Acquiring relevant domains is usually conducted before a presidential campaign goes live.

Cruz became the first major party candidate to run for president in 2016. He made the announcement Monday from Liberty University, the private Christian college in Lynchburg, Virginia. Cruz advocated for repealing the Affordable Care Act and dismantling the IRS in his speech. He also signaled that he would court evangelical and young voters, referencing both voting blocs in his announcement.