Hillary blasts Ted Cruz for leaving dog Snowflake behind on Cancun trip

Former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton scorched Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz with a tweet, writing: "Don't vote for anyone you wouldn't trust with your dog."

While not explicitly naming Mr Cruz, it was clear that it was aimed at him. Ms Clinton was going off reports that Mr Cruz left his dog, Snowflake, behind as his family jetted off to Cancun, Mexico while Texans struggled to deal with power outages and freezing temperatures.

Journalist Michael Hardy tweeted out an image in which a poodle can be seen staring out the front door of Mr Cruz’s Houston home.

Mr Hardy later added: "When Ted Cruz left for Mexico the power was out. His wife Heidi texted a friend it was freezing. While he was gone the power came back. So Snowflake was in the cold for part of a day, but it could well have been longer. Ted left a security guard to take care of Snowflake."

A parody Twitter account was quickly set up for the Cruz family's poodle, garnering almost 3,000 followers by Friday afternoon and chiming in with Ms Clinton.

The bio of the account reads: "I’m Ted Cruz’s poodle, Snowflake, living my best life while Texas freezes over & my a-hole dad is in Cancun."

A winter storm brought record breaking temperatures to Texas this week, with Sunday seeing thermometers drop to lows of 0F (-18C).

As many as three million Texans were left without power or heating, due to the continued surge in demand — and ongoing power outages.

More than 13 million have been advised to boil their drinking water and pipes are bursting inside houses and apartments across the state causing serious damage that will take months to fix.

Mr Cruz was forced to return home on Thursday after flying to a luxury resort in Mexico on Wednesday. He had initially planned to stay until Saturday.

Speaking to reporters after arriving back in Houston, Mr Cruz admitted that he had made a mistake by leaving his state at a time of crisis.

He said: “I was trying to be a dad. And all of us have made decisions when you got two girls who have been cold for two days and haven’t had heat or power and they’re saying, ‘Hey look, we don’t have school, why don’t we go. Let’s get out of here.’"

The Texas Democratic Party called on Mr Cruz to resign for the 21st time on Thursday.

In a searing statement, Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said: “Ted Cruz jetting off to Mexico while Texans remain dying in the cold isn’t surprising but it is deeply disturbing and disappointing. Cruz is emblematic of what the Texas Republican Party and its leaders have become: weak, corrupt, inept, and self-serving politicians who don’t give a damn about the people they were elected to represent. They were elected by the people but have no interest or intent of doing their jobs."