Ted Cruz is fundraising off his bill limiting senators to two terms in office while running for his third term

• Ted Cruz is fundraising off two-term limits for senators while he's running for his third.

• His bill would not count terms served by members before passage of the bill.

Sen. Ted Cruz is fundraising off legislation to limit senators to serving two terms in office, all while he's running for his third.

The Texas Republican touted his bill in a fundraising email for Senate Republicans' campaign arm Thursday, seeking contributions and asking supporters to respond to a term limits poll. The contributions benefit Ted Cruz for Senate and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

"It's finally time we do something about the entrenched politicians in Washington," wrote Cruz, who was first elected to the Senate in 2012. "I want to know what YOU think about my Constitutional Amendment to impose TERM LIMITS on Senators and House Members."

In January, Cruz proposed a Constitutional amendment that would ban a US senator from serving more than 12 years and House members from serving more than three 2-year terms.

However, the resolution would not count terms served by members before enactment against them. That means Cruz would not be term-limited until 2036 if the bill were passed by this Congress, the Texas Tribune noted.

"Term limits will bring ACCOUNTABILITY that is LONG overdue in Washington, and I'm fighting for the American people to get this done," he wrote.

Cruz confirmed to reporters in November that he was seeking a third term.

When asked why he is running for a third term while seeking to limit senators to two, a Cruz spokesperson pointed Insider to the senator's comments to the Texas Chronicle in January 2019.

"I've long said that I don't support unilateral term limits – just one person or one side unilaterally restricting themselves when the rules don't apply across the board," he said. "I think there should be a fair and uniform rule for everyone."

Cruz also told the Chronicle then that his "personal preference would be to make it retroactive."

"But as a nod to practical politics, it would be much, much more difficult to get this passed if the immediate consequence of it happening was to throw out a whole bunch of incumbents," he continued. "It's awfully difficult to get them to vote for it if they'd be immediately giving up their jobs."

Even in its current form, the bill hasn't gained any traction. Cruz originally introduced the legislation in 2017 alongside then-Rep. Ron DeSantis, now Florida's governor. The bill has never come up for a vote in the House or Senate, according to the Texas Tribune.