Ted Cruz Running For President: Texas Senator to Announce 2016 White House Bid Monday

Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at the Grafton County Republican Committee's Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner in Lincoln, N.H., on Sunday, March 15, 2015. 

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will announce his presidential campaign Monday, becoming the first major presidential candidate to officially enter the 2016 race. 

Aides to the Republican senator tell ABC News he will make the announcement during the convocation speech at Liberty University, a Christian college in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Monday morning. News of the announcement was first reported by the Houston Chronicle.

Cruz, 44, is the first major candidate to enter what is expected to be a crowded Republican primary field that will likely include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, Senator Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. By announcing his candidacy, the Texas senator will skip the exploratory process many presidential candidates undergo. 

Cruz's announcement will officially kick off the 2016 presidential race. Several candidates, including Paul and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are expected to announce their presidential campaigns in April. 

The Texas senator has made frequent trips to the early primary states over the last two years as he's mulled his presidential bid. He's traveled to Iowa nine times, New Hampshire five times, and South Carolina five times since 2012. 

WHO IS TED CRUZ?

 

Cruz rose to political stardom in 2012 as a Tea Party candidate who secured the Republican nomination in the Texas Senate primary against then Lt. Gov. Ted Dewhurst, the establishment-backed candidate. In November of that year, Cruz won the Senate seat and is currently serving in his third year in the Senate. 

He has been an outspoken critic of President Obama’s immigration and healthcare plans. In 2013, he led a 21-hour filibuster on the Senate floor in protest against Obamacare just days before a government shutdown. 

Cruz, a Cuban-American, was born in Calgary, Canada to an American mother and a father who fled Cuba in the 1950's. Cruz held dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship until 2014 when he formally renounced his Canadian citizenship. 

Cruz received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. From 2003 to 2008, he served as solicitor general in Texas. 

Despite being a first-time presidential candidate, Cruz has some experience in national campaigns. In 2000, he served as a domestic policy adviser on George W. Bush’s presidential campaign. 

Cruz has also worked at the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department, in addition to clerking for former Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Cr  :  ABC News

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called Sunday on Hillary Clinton to “step up and come out” to explain in more detail why she used a personal e-mail account to conduct government business during her time as secretary of state.

The comments, coming from the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, are some of the most forceful that Clinton has faced from a prominent member of her party since questions about her e-mail use flared up last week.

“What I would like is for her to come forward and say just what the situation is, because she is the preeminent political figure right now,” Feinstein said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The senator called Clinton the “leading candidate” for president.

Feinstein did not accuse Clinton of any wrongdoing, but she suggested that Clinton “needs to step up and come out.” She added: “I think from this point on the silence is going to hurt her.”

Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail account was reported last week by the New York Times. Since then, a special House committee investigating the 2012 fatal attack at a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, has issued subpoenas for information on her e-mails.

Clinton handed over 55,000 pages of e-mails last year to the State Department after the agency asked her to turn over public records she was holding. They are reviewing her submissions.

Many Republicans have raised questions about whether Clinton’s practices complied with government rules and have accused her of being overly secretive. While her surrogates and a spokesman have been defending her actions, Clinton has offered little direct input on the matter.

“I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible,” she tweeted last week.
Feinstein has signed a letter encouraging Clinton to run for president.

In an interview with CBS News published Saturday, President Obama said he learned that Clinton used her personal e-mail for government business “the same time everybody else learned it through news reports.”

In an interview on CBS’ “Face The Nation,” Rep. Trey Gowd, R-S.C., who chairs the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said, “It’s not up to Secretary Clinton to decide what’s a public record and what is not.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, who also sits on the Select Committee on Benghazi, defended Clinton and said it was “deeply disturbing” to see the committee issue subpoenas, arguing, “we have the secretary’s e-mails. She provided 55,000 pages of them to the State Department, they provided the 900 pages relative to Benghazi to us.”

Cr  :  SFGate