Ted Cruz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agree to partner up on legislation

The conservative Texan and liberal New Yorker agreed over Twitter to partner up on a bill banning members of Congress from becoming corporate lobbyists after they leave office.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz committed on Thursday to partner up with his political opposite, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to move legislation that would ban members of Congress from becoming corporate lobbyists after they leave public life.

The coming together played out over Twitter. Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, tweeted Thursday afternoon a statistic from Public Citizen, an ethics watchdog founded by Ralph Nader, stating that nearly 60 percent of members of Congress eventually go on to lobbying careers.

"If you are a member of Congress + leave, you shouldn’t be allowed to turn right around&leverage your service for a lobbyist check," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "I don’t think it should be legal at ALL to become a corporate lobbyist if you’ve served in Congress. At minimum there should be a long wait period."

Cruz, a Texas Republican, responded to her an hour-and-a-half later, writing, "Here’s something I don’t say often: on this point, I AGREE with @AOC."

He added that he has long backed a lifetime lobbying ban for former members of Congress.

"The Swamp would hate it, but perhaps a chance for some bipartisan cooperation?" Cruz added.

The exchange between the hard-line conservative Texan and the liberal favorite from New York made the political world pause.

Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter that she was "down" with making a deal with Cruz, as long as the legislation had "no partisan snuck-in clauses, no poison pills, etc - just a straight, clean ban on members of Congress becoming paid lobbyists - then I’ll co-lead the bill with you."

Cruz's response in a follow-up tweet was succinct: "You're on."