Cruz completed her tertiary education at Claremont McKenna College, the Université libre de Bruxelles, and Harvard Business School.

[8] During a part of Nelson's childhood, she lived with her family in Kenya, Nigeria, and throughout Asia, where they served as missionaries, while both parents participated in dental health work.

She completed her secondary education in 1990, at Monterey Bay Academy, an Adventist boarding school about 150 miles north in La Selva Beach, California.

[13] Following high school, Nelson attended Claremont McKenna College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Economics and International Relations in 1994.

[25] During the 2021 Texas power crisis, she and her family decided to vacation in Cancún, Mexico; Cruz reportedly messaged friends and neighbors to propose a stay at the Ritz-Carlton, partly on the grounds that the nightly rate was attractive.

[26][27] Cruz's messages and her role in the vacation placed her at the center of an international scandal;[26][27][28] in addition to leaving the state during a period of crisis, the Cruzes came under fire for traveling internationally both during the COVID-19 pandemic and during the deadly storm, thereby violating official government guidelines, the guidelines of the school where their daughters are enrolled, and Ted Cruz's own public recommendations.

[26][29] In 2000, Nelson worked as an economic policy director on the Bush for President campaign, where she met her future husband Ted Cruz.

[5] Following her marriage to Ted Cruz in 2001, she went on to work for the Bush administration; she began as a top deputy to U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Zoellick, focusing on economic policy.

"[31] During a New York Times interview, Cruz recalled enjoying her tenure with the Bush administration and found her work to be "personally fulfilling.

[36] After seven years at Goldman Sachs, Cruz was promoted in 2012, to regional head of the Southwest United States for the Investment Management Division in Houston.

[39] Former George W. Bush administration official Sara Taylor Fagen said she was successful in softening her husband's image, which she further argued was essential for "a candidate whose main obstacle to the Republican nomination may be tone and personality", though director of the SuperPAC Our Principles PAC Katie Packer argued her help could only go so far and voters would not support a candidate based on their spouse.

"[47][48] Having made televised solo appearances on Fox Business Network,[49] and KTRK-TV,[50] it was noted by Patrick Svitek of The Texas Tribune that she had become more visible in the previous months than she had been before.

[59] Cruz's campaigning in Texas was viewed by commentators (including potential voters)[60][61][62] as essential to her husband's winning of his home state on Super Tuesday.