LYNCHBURG, Va. – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is expected to announce -- again -- his candidacy for president in a speech this morning at a landmark of the American evangelical movement, Liberty University.
Cruz -- a conservative maverick who has been in the Senate since 2013 -- has already announced his candidacy, with a tweet sent early Monday morning.
"I'm running for president, and I hope to earn your support!" he wrote just after midnight. That made Cruz the first major presidential contender to formally declare himself a 2016 candidate, after several months of fervent -- but unofficial -- jockeying by a large field of Republican hopefuls.
But at about 10:30 a.m., Cruz will say it again, even more officially, in person. He will speak at a convocation ceremony at Liberty Monday morning.
Cruz, showing his savvy for the modern media world, has managed to make the announcement of something entirely unsurprising -- that he is running for president -- into four separate news events.
First, his campaign announced a major speech, which many suspected would serve as his announcement. Then, his team leaked the news that the speech was, indeed, his announcement. Then came the tweet. Now, for television, he will go through the familiar ritual of a candidacy launch: a speech, a crowd, his family, American flags. Photos taken by the AP on Sunday showed Cruz doing a rehearsal for his announcement on a stage at Liberty, walking hand-in-hand with his daughters and practice-smooching his wife.
Cruz's official entry seems likely to throw the 2016 presidential race into a higher gear. By announcing early, Cruz intends to seize the attention of tea party-aligned voter and big donors--beating conservative rivals like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and neurosurgeon Ben Carson to the punch. By announcing at Liberty, founded by fundamentalist icon Jerry Falwell, Cruz is also hoping to attract evangelical voters who might also be interested in slower-starting candidates like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.)
The Harvard and Princeton-educated lawyer, 44, was first elected to the Senate in 2012. He is best known for championing controversial efforts to block implementation of President Obama's health care law in 2013 that included a 21-hour filibuster on the Senate floor -- a crusade that helped lead to a 16-day government shutdown.
He plans to campaign in early primary states as an uncompromising conservative who has, and will, challenge both parties. Cruz has called for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the abolition of Common Core education standards, and has been skeptical of climate change.
He previewed his strategy while speaking to groups in early primary states and at the Conservative Political Action Conference a month ago, describing a grassroots movement that spreads nationwide his message of staunch conservatism, including a hawkish foreign policy and opposition to same-sex marriage. He's called on voters to participate in a "grassroots guerrilla campaign" modeled on the one that propelled him to a long-shot Senate victory.
“The only way we’re going to make this happen is by building a grassroots army in New Hampshire and in all 50 states,” he said last week in Lincoln, N.H.
Cruz will make his formal, oral announcement during a convocation ceremony at Liberty. A Cruz aide said the campaign is announcing at Liberty because it is the largest Christian university in the world and has a large base of activist alumni -- many of whom live in Cruz's home state of Texas. He has assiduously courted evangelicals and conservatives who are frustrated with Republicans in Washington.
Making the announcement here and before any other candidate underscores that Cruz is positioning himself to be a frontrunner in the race for conservatives and evangelicals. Cruz spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at Liberty last year.
The choice of a college as the venue for Cruz's announcement also underscores his intention to actively court young conservatives. Last month, he told a group of mostly 20- and 30-somethings at CPAC to be “entrepreneurs for liberty” and spread his message of conservatism with a smile.
“If we carry young people, we can turn this entire country around,” he said.
Cruz's campaign is looking to raise $40 to $50 million for the primary race. He has talked about harnessing small-dollar grassroots donations, as he did during his Senate race, and can also draw from a base of conservatives nationwide who have supported him in Congress. Cruz also has some top-dollar donors ready to help, including Hal Lambert, founder of Dallas-based Bridge Point Capital.
Cruz supports fewer restrictions on campaign spending. "Money absolutely can be speech," he said last week in New Hampshire.
Cruz lives in Houston with his wife and two young daughters. His wife, Heidi, is a managing director at Goldman Sachs and will take a leave of absence to campaign with her husband.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/03/23/ted-cruz-announces-presidential-run/