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Ted Cruz

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Ted Cruz
Official portrait, 2019
United States Senator
from Texas
Assumed office
January 3, 2013[1]
Serving with John Cornyn
Preceded byKay Bailey Hutchison
Solicitor General of Texas
In office
January 9, 2003 – May 12, 2008[2]
GovernorRick Perry
Preceded byJulie Parsley
Succeeded byJames Ho
Personal details
Born
Rafael Edward Cruz, Jr.

(1970-12-22) December 22, 1970 (age 53)
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 2001)​
Children2
ResidenceHouston, Texas, U.S.
Alma materPrinceton University (A.B.) (1992) (cum laude)[1]
Harvard University (J.D.) (1995) (magna cum laude)[1]
Signature
WebsiteTed Cruz for Senate
Senator Ted Cruz

Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, Jr. (born December 22, 1970) is the junior United States Senator from the state of Texas. He is the first person of Cuban, Hispanic, or Latino descent to hold the office.[3][4][5] He ran for President as a Republican in 2016.

Early life

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Cruz's parents are a Cuban father, Rafael Cruz, and an American mother, Eleanor Darragh.[6] He was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.[6] His parents, who worked in the oil business at the time, were in Calgary on business.[7] He started using the name Ted when he was thirteen years old.[8] Cruz graduated from Second Baptist High School as a valedictorian.[9] He then went to Princeton University and Harvard Law School.[1]

Early career

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Cruz was the domestic policy advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. He helped defend them in the case Bush v. Gore.[10] He also recruited future Chief Justice John Roberts to Bush's legal team.[11]

He served as Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 to May 2008, after being appointed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.[1] He was the first Hispanic,[12] the youngest[13] and the longest-serving solicitor general in Texas history.[14] Cruz was also an adjunct professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, from 2004 to 2009.[15] While there, he taught U.S. Supreme Court litigation. Cruz is one of three Latinos in the Senate; the others—also Americans of Cuban ancestry—are fellow Republican Marco Rubio of Florida and Democrat Bob Menendez of New Jersey.[16]

U.S. senator

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Cruz was the Republican nominee for the Senate seat vacated by fellow Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison.[17] On July 31, 2012, he defeated Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst in the Republican primary runoff, 57%–43%.[18] Cruz defeated former state Representative Paul Sadler in the general election on November 6, 2012. He won to 56%–41% over Sadler.[18][19] Cruz openly identifies with the Tea Party movement and has been endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus.[20]

On November 14, 2012, Cruz was appointed vice-chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.[21] Cruz has been a leading opponent of Barack Obama's healthcare reform plan known as Obamacare. He has led efforts to repeal the law, including a filibuster in 2013.[22][23]

2016 presidential race

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See the main article: Ted Cruz presidential campaign, 2016

On March 23, 2015, Cruz announced he would run for the Republican Party nomination in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. He made his announcement at Liberty University.[24][25]

On February 1, 2016, Cruz won the first primary state of Iowa, beating Donald Trump and Marco Rubio.[26] This made him the first Hispanic person to win a caucus.[26][27] Cruz then won Alaska, Texas, and Oklahoma on "Super Tuesday".[28] He got the most votes in all of the 254 Texas counties except six.[29] On April 27, 2016, Cruz named former GOP candidate and businesswoman Carly Fiorina as his running mate.[30]

On May 3, 2016, after losing the Indiana primaries to Donald Trump, Cruz suspended his campaign.[31]

Personal life

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He married Heidi Nelson on May 27, 2001.[32] They have two daughters named Caroline and Catherine.[33]

Cruz is a Southern Baptist.[4]

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "CRUZ, Rafael Edward (Ted) – Biographical Information". Bioguide.congress.gov. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Texas Solicitor General R. Ted Cruz to Join Morgan Lewis to Help Lead U.S. Supreme Court and National Appellate Practice, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius". Archived from the original on 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
  3. ↑ U.S. Senator Ted Cruz at U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC 10th Annual Luncheon, Biltmore Hotel (Miami, FL), US-Cuba Democracy PAC, March 10, 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Editorial: Texan of the Year finalist Ted Cruz". The Dallas Morning News. Dallas, Texas: A. H. Belo. December 20, 2012. Archived from the original on August 15, 2016. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
  5. ↑ Loyola, Mario. Exile and the Revolution, Like all Cuban-Americans, Ted Cruz belongs to a family of exiles. Archived 2017-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, National Review, November 4, 2011.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ferguson, John Wayne (August 13, 2012). "Texplainer: Could Canadian-Born Ted Cruz Be President?". Texas Tribune. Retrieved August 17, 2013. Bottom line: Despite being born in Canada, Cruz is a U.S. citizen because his mother was a U.S. citizen, according to constitutional experts.
  7. ↑ Garrett, Robert T. (April 28, 2013). "Senate candidate Ted Cruz aims to pick up mantle of Reagan". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  8. ↑ Hopper, Jessica (July 2, 2015). "7 Things You Never Knew About Ted Cruz That We Learned From Reading His Book". ABC News. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
  9. ↑ Mackey, Maureen (March 23, 2015). "Ted Cruz: 20 Things You Didn't Know About Him". Fiscal Times. Retrieved April 23, 2015. 7: He graduated from Houston's Second Baptist High School in 1988 and was valedictorian of his class.
  10. ↑ Cottle, Michelle (March 12, 2013). "The Reinvention of Ted Cruz". The Daily Beast. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  11. ↑ Toobin, Jeffrey (June 30, 2014). "Ted Cruz, The Absolutist". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  12. ↑ Russ, Hilary (April 5, 2010). "Rising Star: Morgan Lewis' R. Ted Cruz" (PDF). Law360. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  13. ↑ "The Honorable Ted Cruz". Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  14. ↑ Fox News Latino Prospective 2016 Presidential Candidates Start Testing The Waters; 7 April 2014 "he was Texas' longest-serving solicitor general, between 2003 and 2008."
  15. ↑ Office of the Registrar (2006), University of Texas School of Law Catalog, Austin, Texas: University of Texas at Austin, archived from the original on 2016-03-04, retrieved 2015-06-03, Ted Cruz, Adjunct Professor; AB, Princeton, 1992; JD, Harvard, 1995
  16. ↑ "Explaining the Senate's growing conservative Latino caucus". WBEZ91.5. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  17. ↑ "Ted Cruz Makes it a New Game for U.S. Senate in Texas". RedState. January 19, 2011. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 State of Texas (July 31, 2012). "Election Results". Office of the Secretary of State. Archived from the original on 2 January 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
  19. ↑ U.S. Senator Ted Cruz Archived 2016-04-05 at the Wayback Machine, Austin American-Statesman
  20. ↑ Planas, Roque (July 16, 2012). "Ted Cruz Puts Dewhurst on Defensive in Last Debate Before Texas Runoff". Fox News. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
  21. ↑ Gillman, Todd J. (November 14, 2012). "Ted Cruz to help Senate GOP with "grassroots" outreach". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on May 9, 2015. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  22. ↑ Keith, Tamara (October 2, 2013). "Why Ted Cruz Looms Large In Government Shutdown Drama". NPR.
  23. ↑ Kapur, Sahil (September 8, 2015). "Ted Cruz to Star in Government Shutdown, the Sequel". Bloomberg News.
  24. ↑ Martin, Nathan; Maggie Haberman (22 March 2015). "Ted Cruz Hopes Early Campaign Entry Will Focus Voters' Attention". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  25. ↑ "Ted Cruz Announces Presidential Bid". NBC News. March 23, 2015. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 "Ted Cruz makes history, becomes first Hispanic to win Iowa caucus". FOX News Latino. New York. February 1, 2016. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  27. ↑ Borchers, Callum (February 3, 2016). "Ted Cruz is the first Latino to win a caucus or primary. Why isn't that a bigger deal?". The Washington Post. Washington, DC. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  28. ↑ Rafferty, Andrew (March 2, 2016). "Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Score Big Super Tuesday Primary Wins". NBC News.
  29. ↑ McCullough, Jolie (March 2, 2016). "Cruz, Clinton Grab Most Votes in Almost Every Texas County". Texas Tribune. Austin, Texas. Retrieved March 2, 2016. With 100% of precincts reporting, Cruz, came away with 1,239,158 votes, or 43.8% of the total. Donald Trump followed behind with 757,489 votes, or 26.7% of the vote. Cruz, one of the state's two U.S. senators, got the most votes in all but six of the state's 254 counties.
  30. ↑ "Cruz announces Fiorina as choice for running mate". Fox News. April 27, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  31. ↑ Martin Flegenheimer (May 3, 2016). "Ted Cruz Suspends His Campaign For President". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  32. ↑ "Ted Cruz Fast Facts". CNN. March 26, 2015.
  33. ↑ Chumley, Cheryl K. (October 25, 2013). "Ted Cruz's daughter, 2: 'I want to work with daddy'". The Washington Times. Retrieved September 13, 2020.

Other websites

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