Politics is weird. A wrong conceit perpetuated by the people who cover it is that being a successful politician requires charisma. Charisma is a multifaceted concept which obviously does not equal "hot" but nonetheless... have you seen some of the people in Congress? Probably the most charismatic Republican running for president in 2016 was Marco Rubio and that guy is neither hot nor charismatic. Discuss.
Having said that, how does a man like Ted Cruz manage to step over all of the other not charismatic cretins to become a senator for Texas? I get that you just gotta have a pulse and an R next to your name to win the general election, but Ted Cruz managed to beat all of the other Rs with a pulse to get there somehow. How did that happen?