Ted Cruz: biography
Ted Cruz is an American politician who had a chance of becoming the President of the U.S., but he left the run prematurely. Currently, he is the junior Senator for Texas and holds the record of being the first Hispanic American taking this seat.
Childhood and youth
Ted Cruz was born on the 22nd of December, 1970, in Calgary, Canada. He is of mixed ethnicity since his father, Rafael Cruz, is a Cuban descendant and his mother, Elisabeth Darragh, is three-quarters Irish and one-quarter Italian.
Rafael Cruz was born and brought up in Cuba, but then left his native land for the U.S. He arrived in the country seeking for political asylum and had neither money nor knowledge of the English language. Somehow he managed everything and got a degree in the University of Texas.
Until the age of three, the Cruzes lived in Calgary, but then they moved to Texas, where Ted at-tended a private school, Faith West Academy, in the neighborhood of Houston. He was later trans-ferred to a Christian school, Second Baptist High School, which he finished in 1988 with a closing statement for all seniors. Perhaps this was the first major speech of the future politician.
At the same time, as a high school student, Cruz took part in a program, aimed at providing additional education on economic thought. There he got a picture of who Milton Friedman and Frédéric Bastiat were.
Cruz continued his education at Princeton University, and in 1992 he achieved a well-graded diploma of BA in public policy. During his time at Princeton, he joined the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, a part of which was established by James Madison, who had inspired Cruz for an award-winning thesis. As a member of society, he focused on debates and obtained recognition in time for his senior year. A talented student held prizes for being the top speaker on multiple championships and also tried doing his best on the World Championship, but became a runner-up with his team partner.
Then Cruz enrolled at Harvard Law School, and he graduated in 1995, with an excellent di-ploma this time. While at Harvard, a future Juris Doctor edited several magazines such as the Harvard Law Review. He was also called outstanding by his then professor.
Legal career
Initially, Cruz worked as a law clerk for a federal judge J. Michael Luttig and then for a Chief Justice William Rehnquist. After two years of public service, he went into private practice and joined Cooper & Kirk, PLLC. There he dealt with various cases including the impeachment pro-ceedings against Bill Clinton, issues with a nonprofit pro-gun organization NRA and had a chance to be an attorney in John Boehner's litigation, who was involved into a telephone conversation, a recording of which was late leaked.
In 1999 Cruz returned to civil service and became a member of Bush legal team since was the Governor of Texas. He was assigned as a domestic policy adviser and helped him throughout the whole campaign developing strategy, that would have covered some issues with the court and searching for new members to join presidential administration.
One promotion followed another, and when Bush started his tenure, Cruz was appointed as Solicitor General of Texas. Then Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott considered a new worker to be very straightforward and impartial in his decisions, so Cruz took the position in order to represent the state before the Supreme Court of the U.S. using his judicial philosophy. Overall, he appeared nine before the Supreme Court, wrote more than 70 briefs and prepared multiple oral arguments.
Cruz held the position until 2008 and during his tenure was included in the lists of some best lawyers in various categories, proving that his work was done correctly and he had to go on.
Before the run for Senate, Cruz returned to private practice in Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and handled appellate cases, for example, one of a Chinese company. He was also a defender in two litigations involving personal injury with an extremely high award; Cruz won both times.
U.S. Senate
Cruz decided to give it a try in the Senate and announced his participation in the run after the previous Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison she wouldn’t do another tenure. A prominent attorney was encouraged by his well-known colleagues, and they chose a good challenger to support: Cruz won the Republican primary.
His principal opponent was Democratic candidate Paul Sadler, whom he overcame by 16%, according to the Texas polls.
During his time it the Senate, Cruz mainly focused on two issues: healthcare and gun con-trol. He was also mentioned to be involved in the 2013 government shutdown, which he denied. The Texas Senator also ignored more than a half of committee meetings that were not that obligato-ry, but just essential for any Senate worker. He gained disapproval from the media and colleagues and was even suggested to be eliminated from the presidential run due to his inconsistency in the Senate.
In 2018 Cruz announced that he would run for reelection. Eventually, he received around 80% of Republican votes and opposed the Democratic nominee Beto O'Rourke. The race was pret-ty tough which turned out as a surprise to the citizens of Texas. When the results were issued, there was only a small margin of 2%.
2016 presidential campaign
It was 2013 when the public knew about Cruz’s intention to run for the presidency. Howev-er, he made an official announcement only in March 2015 and was the first among major candidates to do so. He also posted his decision on Twitter.
Initially, his primary polls showed winning numbers, but then a series of third places followed. Overall Cruz had eleven state wins; however he decided to suspend after a striking fail on the Indiana primary.
Cruz was a strong runner-up for Trump but may have faced some difficulties as long as he was born in Calgary, Canada. However, it was asserted that he is eligible since he was born by vir-tue in another country to a U.S. citizen.
Political views
Cruz is a Republican and shares highly conservatives views.
First of all, he is against communism, since such a regime hit his family. In 2018 Cruz spoke out and urged the whole world to overcome the remains of totalitarianism.
He is a pro-gun activist and struggles against the expansion of gun control. Besides, Cruz accepts the death penalty and considers his case involving such punishment to be the most signifi-cant in some time of his career.
Sometimes Cruz’s opinions differ from those of the majority, and in this case, he continues to support the law, disregarding his personal emotions. For instance, the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, which he initially opposed, but tolerated the citizens’ decision.
Cruz speaks for free trade and believes that limiting state interference would be better. He suggested such policies as introducing a flat tax and more liberty into schools, so kids wouldn’t have to pass language and maths exams at the end every educational year. Recently the Senator defended his opinion on CNN, having a debate with Bernie Sanders, the junior Senator from Vermont, and received a lot of approving reviews on his address.
As for healthcare, he is against Obamacare and would like to replace it with another pro-gram, developed by a group of Republican senators.
He also rejects any environmental issues and do not trust scientists referring to every one of them as Democrats and is strongly pro-life and heterosexual marriages only.
Cruz supported Brett Kavanaugh, an accused Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and even appeared on the news in a video the protestants made. A group of discontented forced Cruz to denounce Kavanaugh and followed him into the restaurant, coarsely intervening his private life.
Personal life
Cruz is married to Heidi Nelson, an investment manager. They have two daughters together, and the family seems to be really strong since Heidi retired from a high position in a multinational investment bank in order to support her husband’s presidential campaign. She was also mentioned to work in the White House for the then Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
A politician considers himself to be Southern Baptist and also released a book titled A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America in 2015.
As for now, Cruz’s net worth equals to circa $4.6 million. These are the couple’s assets combined since the spouses have been working together for some time.
Cruz favors public appearances not only in court but on the court, competing with a late-night show TV host Jimmy Kimmel. The two celebrities played one-on-one basketball, and an attorney won 11-9.
