Sen. Ted Cruz (Photo : Reuters)
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, Teas Party darling and implacable foe of U.S. President Barack Obama and all things liberal, will announce his candidacy for President on Monday, March 24.
Cruz, 44 and a first term senator, will announce his candidacy at speech at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The man that almost shut down the federal government over Obamacare in 2013 will become the first Republican presidential hopeful to declare his candidacy. Right wing media outlet Fox News reported Cruz will immediately start his campaign instead of launching an exploratory committee, as is the normal course for presidential wannabes.
Cruz's aides said the senator hopes to raise some US$40 to 50 million to bankroll his primary campaign.
Cruz will go up against a tough field of Republican contenders including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
Cruz's efforts to create an image for himself as a hard line conservative opposed to big government and liberal ideals such as climate change have failed to endear him to the larger conservative base of the Republican Party. Instead, Cruz's appeal lies with extreme right wing groups such as the Team Party united in their distaste for Obama and the Democratic Party.
His limited appeal to the Republican majority was reflected in a poll earlier this month from Quinnipiac University that gave him just six per cent of the GOP vote.
In contrast, Walker took 18 percent and Bush 16 percent. Rubio and Paul had higher polling numbers than Cruz.
Political analysts said a serious issue Cruz has to contend with is that he was born a Canadian citizen. He only renounced his Canadian citizenship last year following intense political and media scrutiny.
Anti-Cruz "birthers" have challenged Cruz's citizenship because he was born in Canada. Cruz later released his birth certificate showing his mother was a U.S. citizen born in Delaware, saying this satisfied the requirements for presidential eligibility as a "natural born citizen."
"I was born in Calgary. My mother was an American citizen by birth. Under federal law, that made me an American citizen by birth. The Constitution requires that you be a natural-born citizen," he told the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Hillary Clinton is the heavy favorite to be the Democrat's presidential candidate.
