Cruz takes to the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon. | AP Photo/Senate TV Cruz ends marathon speech

Ted Cruz finally released his grip on the Senate floor after more than 21 hours of speaking about the need to defund Obamacare.

The Texas Republican seized control of the Senate floor on Tuesday about 2:42 p.m. vowing to “speak in support of defunding Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand.” Cruz could have spoken all the way up to a 1 p.m. procedural vote on moving spending bill forward, but he relented at noon.


“It is my it intention to accept the end of this at noon,” Cruz said.

After his 20th hour holding the floor, Cruz asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to come to the floor to listen to a pair of requests that sparked a bizarre exchange. Cruz asked to waive Wednesday’s vote and move a high-stakes procedural vote to Friday rather than Saturday to allow more people to watch.

“I think it is better for this country that this vote is visible,” Cruz said. “Sticking it on Saturday in the middle in the middle of football games would disserve that objective.”

Reid ignored Cruz’s requests and asked for far more time to be yielded back to allow the House more time to consider what the Senate will send back.

“There’s a possibility that they may not accept what we send them and they may want to send us something back,” Reid said.

Cruz cut off Reid, accusing him of “making a speech” rather than asking Cruz a question.

Despite his Ironman stand on the floor of the upper chamber, Cruz could not stop a Senate already in motion from eventually returning a clean continuing resolution to the House scant days before a government shutdown is scheduled to take effect on Oct. 1. Under Senate rules, the latest the upper chamber could take the first procedural vote on a House spending bill that defunds Obamacare is 1 p.m. on Wednesday — a reality Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) broadcast to the world Tuesday morning when he opened the Senate and again on Wednesday.

( PHOTOS: Longest filibusters in history)

“This is not a filibuster. This is an agreement that he and I made that he could talk,” Reid said Wednesday.

In other words, from the beginning it was all over save for the theatrics. But Cruz offered plenty Tuesday by holding the Senate floor for hours about why Obamacare should cease to exist. He was flanked at times by Republican Sens. David Vitter of Louisiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Pat Roberts of Kansas, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Jim Risch of Idaho, Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who recommended Cruz wear comfortable shoes and not eat food on national television.

Cruz touched on a wide variety of subjects during his marathon, from Dr. Seuss to college kids’ inability to find White Castle burgers during the wee hours because of Obamacare. He read tweets from constituents and related stories from a “lost generation” of young people plagued by the Affordable Care Act.

( PHOTOS: Key quotes from Ted Cruz)

He also read bedtime stories to his children, who he said were at home watching him on C-SPAN. One was the Seuss tale “Green Eggs and Ham.”

Cruz was even joined by Democrats, including Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, who pointedly questioned Cruz both Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Kaine sparred with Cruz for 30 minutes and argued some voters had sent people to Washington to preserve Obamacare. Kaine won his Senate seat in 2012 by besting former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), who had staked his election on repeal.

Durbin on Tuesday explained why he voted for the health care law and argued the law made it easier for one of his constituents to qualify for Medicaid. Durbin asked if — given Cruz’s Ivy League education — he knew he did not have the votes to defund Obamacare in the Senate.

( WATCH: Cruz’s speech: 10 colorful quotes)

“Certainly the senator realizes that it takes 60 votes,” Durbin told Cruz.

“I would note that I’m quite familiar with what is necessary to defund Obamacare,” Cruz shot back.

Cruz bashed his colleagues in Washington for accepting that stopping Obamacare is impossible and charged that the outcome of the drama in the Senate this week is predetermined, comparing it to professional wrestling.

He also dinged anonymous staffers and Republican lawmakers for criticizing him in the press, yet also divulged a conversation between Lee and an anonymous House member. According to Cruz, that lawmaker told Lee of the House sending over its defund bill: “You guys should be grateful. We gave you your vote.”

( QUIZ: Do you know Ted Cruz?)

“Why should we feel gratitude for a vote that’s destined to lose?” Cruz asked of other Republicans, referring to Reid’s procedural upper-hand. “Symbolic votes are great for getting elected.”

A potential 2016 presidential candidate, Cruz is playing to the GOP base as much as he is bashing business as usual inside the Capitol. He said some lawmakers are too concerned with hitting the D.C. cocktail circuit, taking show votes and giving speeches to change the way Washington works, asking at one point: “Where is the outrage?”

“A lot of members of this body have — at least so far — not showed up to battle,” Cruz said, repeatedly referring to the empty chairs in the Senate chamber while he talked. “The chattering class is quick to discipline anyone who doesn’t fall in line.”

( Also on POLITICO: Hillary Clinton defends Obamacare, slams defunding efforts)

Cruz said his speech was meant to “celebrate” the American democratic system and that if senators listened to their constituents back home, he and his conservative allies truly could win.

“The vote would be 100-0 to defund Obamacare,” he said

Cruz’s defund movement has sparked open hostility from those within his own party who embrace the goal of eliminating Obamacare but disagree with his tactic of opposing spending bills that fund the law. The 46-member Senate Republican Conference even called a special meeting on Tuesday afternoon to try to refocus on attacking Obamacare rather than each other, an example of just how divisive Cruz has become in his nine months in the Senate.

But the Texas freshman seems unbowed by the lack of support from many Republican Party elders, like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Cruz’s home-state colleague, John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican.

“Each day I learn what a scoundrel I am,” Cruz said of reading media reports that quote Republican lawmakers and aides critical of him. “Most Americans could not give a flying flip about politicians in Washington. Who cares? Most of us are in cheap suits with bad haircuts. Who cares?”

( Also on POLITICO: Obamacare takes one blow after another)

Cruz forged ahead despite the fact that Republicans couldn’t perform a talking filibuster to delay indefinitely the stopgap spending measure. Cruz wore comfy black tennis shoes to help him make his stand and received his first breather from Lee nearly an hour into his speech. A few minutes later, Vitter joined Cruz to highlight federal Obamacare subsidies for lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides, a “Washington exemption” that Vitter has been seeking to reverse. Nearly three hours into Cruz’s speech, Paul arrived to stress he and Cruz are not seeking a government shutdown.

“Why’s the senator from Texas here today? To say to the president: ‘We need to talk,’” said Paul, a veteran of long Senate speeches himself. “We’re not asking for 100 percent of what we want, but we want a dialogue. How do we get a dialogue if somebody won’t stand up and say: ‘Enough’s enough’?”

Cruz also offered some of his ideas for health care reform, including allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines and offering “portable” plans that aren’t dependent on specific jobs. That would come, of course, after dealing with Obamacare.

“After we defund Obamacare we’d make a real difference,” Cruz said. “The reforms I laid out are all about empowering you, the American people.”

And as Cruz spoke, supportive statements flowed in from outside groups, like FreedomWorks.

“It is time to make D.C. listen,” Cruz said, sparking the complementary Twitter hashtag #MakeDCListen. “This is a point I intend to make over and over again.”

Cruz’s impassioned speech immediately drew comparisons to famous Senate filibusters, like one by Paul earlier this year over the administration’s drone policy. But Cruz isn’t seeking information from the Obama administration like Paul did and can’t hold up the spending bill, as Paul threatened to do over John Brennan, the nominee for CIA director, if he didn’t get answers on drone policy.

That’s because the Senate was on auto-pilot since Reid on Monday set up a series of procedural votes on the House-passed government funding bill, although Cruz and Lee have maintained they will continue to fight the majority leader at every turn.

“We are going to vote tomorrow. Under the rules, no one can stop that,” Reid said on Tuesday.

If they want, Republicans like Cruz can hold up the bill until as late as Sunday, when Reid will seek to strip out the Obamacare defunding provision and send a clean continuing resolution that funds the government through Nov. 15 back to the House. Republicans can also give consent to speed up the votes, which would allow more time for the House to consider its next move when the spending bill is sent back.

Given the limited means Cruz has to stop Reid from approving a clean CR, he and Lee are pushing Republicans to oppose procedural votes to end debate on the House bill. But McConnell and Cornyn will not go along with Cruz’s plan, although a spokeswoman for Paul said the Kentucky senator will stick with Cruz.

“I just don’t happen to think filibustering a bill that defunds Obamacare is the best route to defunding Obamacare,” McConnell said on Tuesday morning. “All it does is shut down the government and keep Obamacare funded. And none of us want that.”

While he spelled Cruz for a moment, Lee remarked that Democrats would also vote to continue advancing the bill with McConnell and Cornyn — and it wouldn’t be because they support a bill that defunds Obamacare.

“I find that a little strange, a little counter-intuitive,” Lee said. “Anyone who wanted to stand with the House of Representatives at that point would in fact vote no.”

John Bresnahan and Manu Raju contributed to this report.