Ted Cruz Announces Run For President

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Pictured: U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.)

Andrew White Cleary, staff writer

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is the first major candidate to formally announce his bid for president in the upcoming 2016 election. His choice to run, however, has divided political commentators.

Cruz is a divisive figure both inside and outside Capitol Hill. Many have suggested his importance in the U.S. federal government shutdown of 2013 will impede his chances of success. Up to and during the congressional deadlock preceding the shutdown, Cruz was famously outspoken on the Affordable Care Act (often referred to as “ObamaCare”). Following the shutdown, which was shaped by congressional disagreement on funding for “ObamaCare,” the U.S. Congress received much scorn. Both a salmonella outbreak that week and many cancer patients’ treatments being delayed were attributed to the shutdown having furloughed a large number of health workers. The country’s disapproval was generalized to Congress altogether, but rarely was Cruz separated from it.

Additionally, Cruz is a strident critic of the Internal Revenue Service, gay marriage, and congressional action on climate change. These uncompromising views, along with his role in the 2013 shutdown, have led Cruz to be described as having mostly an “evangelical fanbase.”

Others find Cruz’s announcement reasonable. Howard Kurtz, a journalist with both liberal and conservative viewpoints, affirmed Cruz’s small circle of support; Kurtz also, however, criticized the opinion Cruz has spent too little time in the public eye for it, noting incumbent president Barack Obama was only 46, and had served only two years in the Senate, when entering office. Also, Cruz has occasionally supported civil liberties’ legislation: he was one in a small number of Senators to vote against the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014, which allows the US military to indefinitely detain people suspected of committing or funding acts of terrorism .

The next few months will most likely see many more candidates announce running for president in 2016. Cruz is the first major candidate to do so. If winning the election, Cruz will be the 45th President of the United States; he will also be 45 years of age, making his age during election among the lowest of all US presidents.