Sen. Marco Rubio prepares to leave a New Hampshire campaign stop, Jan. 3. The shoes he wore that day provoked mockery from Ted Cruz's campaign. | AP Photo Cruz camp mocks Rubio's 'high-heeled booties'

Ted Cruz may be leading his fellow Cuban-American senator in the polls, but his campaign is nipping at the heels of Marco Rubio — literally.

“A Vote for Marco Rubio Is a Vote for Men’s High-Heeled Booties,” Rick Tyler, Cruz’s communications director, tweeted Tuesday, linking to an article with that headline by New York Magazine’s women’s blog “The Cut."


“The Cut” article looks at the stylish black boots the 5-foot-10 inch Florida senator wore on the campaign trail Monday and compares his footwear to that of One Direction boy-band member Harry Styles.

"The boots — which we think are either these Giorgio Brutini boots or these Margiela ones — look a lot like a pair favored by Styles, albeit with slightly less pilgrim flair," blogger Jessica Roy wrote.

Vanity Fair also speculated idly about Rubio's boots, comparing them to options ranging from an $85 pair by Giorgio Brutini to a $1,990 offering from Tom Ford.

But Rubio's campaign told POLITICO what the boots were, and they're on the more modest end of speculation: a pair of Florsheims. Boots similar to Rubio's on the Florsheim website sell for not much more than $100.

Brian Phillips, Cruz’s rapid response director, tweeted out the photo of Rubio’s boots with the cheeky comment, “Rubio supports Italian boots on the ground.”

It all started with a tweet from New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro, who first noticed Rubio’s boots Monday and sent a photograph into the Twittersphere.

Marco Rubio is rocking some seriously fashionable black boots today in New Hampshire. pic.twitter.com/lwiSWuuCUt — Michael Barbaro (@mikiebarb) January 4, 2016

The 5-foot-11 Cruz happens to be something of a boot aficionado himself. The Texas senator describes his favorite pair of black ostrich boots as his “argument boots,” which he has worn since his time as the state's solicitor general, and has been known to wear with American flag socks.

“Litigators are kind of superstitious, so anytime I went into court to argue a case I wore my argument boots. I had them resoled four or five times,” Cruz said in September 2013.

“When I had the great honor of serving in this body, of being sworn into the Senate, when I was sworn in standing on the steps just in front of us, I wore my argument boots. I have worn them every day since. I don't believe there has been a day on this Senate floor that I haven't worn my argument boots,” he continued.

Sept. 25, 2013 — the day of his epic, 21-hour Obamacare filibuster — was the first time Cruz wasn’t wearing his boots, and he was “pretty embarrassed by that,” he said.

A typical pair of ostrich boots ranges from the high $200s to the high $500s.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated Cruz's height, he is 5-foot-11.