US Senator Ted Cruz announces he is running for president

As 2016 approaches, the race for the presidential nomination has officially begun and is expected to heat up in the coming months.

The 2016 presidential race has officially begun. First in line to announce his candidacy in running on the Republican ticket is Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Cruz, one of the Republican Party’s most conservative members, announced early Monday he is running for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, making him the first among what is expected to be a crowded field of White House hopefuls to officially enter the race.

“I’m running for president and I hope to earn your support!” he tweeted. In an early preview of his campaign message, he says in an accompanying video that “it is going to take a new generation of courageous conservatives to make America great again.”

Several other Republicans are expected to enter the race in the coming weeks, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and two Senate colleagues, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Florida’s Marco Rubio.

Cruz, 44, is the son of an American mother and Cuban-born father and would be the nation’s first Hispanic president.

After his election to the Senate in 2012, the former Texas solicitor general quickly established himself as an uncompromising conservative willing to take on Democrats and fellow Republicans alike.

Recent Republican history, however, could work against Cruz and other deeply conservative candidates as they battle through state-by-state primaries and caucuses. That selection process is dominated by the most conservative Republican voters and can lead to the nomination of a candidate who is not acceptable to more moderate Republicans and independent voters.

Cruz is set to release a book this summer that he has said would reflect themes of his White House campaign. In a recent interview, he said he wants to counter the “caricatures” of the right as “stupid,” ”evil” or “crazy.”

“The image created in the mainstream media does not comply with the facts,” said Cruz, who does not believe in climate change.

The senator was born in Canada, but two lawyers who represented presidents from both parties at the Supreme Court recently wrote in the Harvard Law Review that Cruz meets the constitutional requirement to run.

Cruz had hinted openly at his interest in seeking the White House for months, and his intention to jump into the race was confirmed Sunday by a strategist for the first-term senator.

On foreign policy, Cruz was among 47 Republican senators who signed a letter to Iran’s supreme leader warning that any nuclear deal that is struck with the Obama administration and five other world powers could become null and void after the 2016 election when the current president leaves the White House. Cruz is a strong backer of Israel.

By: Steven R. Hurst/AP and World Israel News Staff

Ted Cruz