TEXAS — Despite calling for rioters to stop storming the United States Capitol Wednesday, critics of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) maintain he fanned the flames of violence and have called for him to resign.

Prior to the eruption of violence in Washington, Cruz called for a 10-day audit on election results over fraud allegations and objected to results in Pennsylvania and Arizona.

The challenges were ultimately fruitless – both challenges were easily defeated in the Republican-controlled Senate, and President-elect Joe Biden's win was affirmed by the joint session of Congress.

In the early morning hours on Thursday, Cruz called the attack on the Capitol "a despicable act of terrorism and a shocking assault on our democratic system.”

Prominent progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called on Cruz to accept his actions and resign, alongside Sen. Josh Hawley, the other U.S. Senator to challenge the results of the presidential election on Wednesday.

Cruz challenged Ocasio-Cortez's assertions in a series of Tweets, adding: "Sorry, I ain’t going anywhere."

Cruz's Twitter statement was not enough for some prominent Texas Democrats.

Former San Antonio mayor and U.S. Sec. of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama Julián Castro and his brother, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), in subsequent Twitter posts, called on Cruz to step down, simply writing that Cruz "should resign from the Unied States Senate immediately." 

Joaquin Castro also called on Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley to resign.

Cruz’s 2018 Senate race opponent Beto O’Rourke retweeted Cruz’s condemnation of Wednesday’s violence, placing the blame on the junior senator from Texas.

“It is your self serving attempt at sedition that has helped to inspire these terrorists and their attempted coup,” he wrote.

In response, Cruz tweeted the following:

“Stop stoking division. Stop spreading hatred. Stop using malicious rhetoric (such as false & reckless charges of ‘sedition’). Stop showing contempt for half of the country that disagrees with you. Violence is wrong. We can do better. We are one Nation.”

In a statement, the state's Democratic Party said, in part:

“The Texas Democratic Party is calling on Ted Cruz to resign from the U.S. Senate for acting in bad faith and subsequently inciting treasonous and seditious acts among conspiracy theorists and domestic terrorists. Texas Democrats are also calling on the Justice Department to investigate the actions that led to the violence, the role of elected officials, and specifically Ted Cruz’s involvement."