WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz huddled with a borrowed shotgun in a Louisiana duck blind last week, his face smeared with black greasepaint.

He was there to shoot a campaign video with Phil Robertson, the gray-bearded patriarch of reality TV’s “Duck Dynasty” clan. The junior U.S. senator from Texas, donning camouflaged overalls, is shown squeezing off a couple of rounds toward the gray sky. It was not immediately clear whether any ducks were harmed during the making of the ad.

Looking into the camera, Robertson said his selection criteria for endorsing a candidate included “would they kill a duck, put ’em in a pot and make ’em a good duck gumbo.”

“You’re one of us, my man,” he then told Cruz.

Cruz has made the defense of Second Amendment rights a cornerstone of his presidential campaign, touting his past legal work fighting against gun control laws. In his three years in the U.S. Senate, Cruz’s voting record has earned an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association. Fiery criticism of President Barack Obama’s efforts to tighten background checks for gun purchases is a staple of Cruz stump speeches.