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Top 10 interesting facts about Ted Cruz
Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz is an American politician and attorney, serving as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013 as a member of the Republican Party. His popularity grew both national and international in 2016 when he ran for President of the United States. Unfortunately, he was placed second behind Donald Trump in the Republican primaries.
At the start of his political career, Cruz gained a lot of attention because of his conservative stances and impeccable public speaking skills. He was named “2013 Man of the Year” by conservative publications TheBlaze, and The American Spectator, “2013 Conservative of the Year” by Townhall, and “2013 Statesman of the Year” by the Republican Party of Sarasota County, Florida.
However, in recent years, his approval rate has been constantly declining due to the many negative controversies surrounding him. This has resulted in him becoming one of the most ridiculed senators in recent years.
To continue learning more about this controversial figure, here are the top 10 facts about Ted Cruz
1. He was born in Canada
Canada Flag – Unsplash
Cruz was born on December 22, 1970, at Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson and Rafael Cruz. When he was born, his parents were working in the oil business as owners of a seismic-data processing firm for oil drilling.
Experiencing problems in their marriage, Rafael, Father to Ted Cruz, left the family in 1974 and moved to Texas. Later that year, Cruz’s parents reconciled, and the whole family relocated to Houston. Cruz was about four years when he moved to the USA.
Now the question is how did Cruz manage to run for presidency when according to the 2016 Trump campaigning team accused Cruz of not being a naturally born USA citizen or a Citizen of the United States? Actually, Cruz is a natural-born USA citizen from the simple fact that he was born to a USA citizen. His mother Elizabeth Wilson was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Cruz became a naturalized United States citizen in 2005.
2. Inspiration from his father
Rafeal Cruz, father to Ted Cruz – Wikipedia
Rafael Cruz, father to Ted Cruz, was born in Matanzas, Cuba, in 1939. As a teenager, Rafael joined the Cuban Revolution. The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolution led by Fidel Castro against Fulgencio Batista in the mid-1950’s. According to Rafael, as a teenager, he “didn’t know Castro was a Communist”.
During an interview, Rafael confessed that he was jailed by Batista for several days in June or July 1957 because of his association with the Cuban Revolution. Upon his release, Rafael applied to the University of Texas and was accepted in August 1957. He was able to leave for the university after an attorney for the family bribed a Batista official to grant him an exit permit.
According to Rafeal, he came to America with only $100 sewn into his underwear, knowing very little English. Fortunately, he was able to graduate from UT with a degree in mathematics and chemical engineering in 1961. Today, he is a Cuban-American Protestant preacher.
3. Cruz changed his name
Cruz at the 2016 Republican National Convention, July 20, 2016 – Wikipedia
Ted Cruz was born Rafael Edward Cruz and began going by Ted at the age of 13 due to his age mates making fun of his name.
Cruz said in his 2015 autobiography, A Time for Truth, “The problem with that name was that it seemed to rhyme with every major corn chip on the market. Fritos, Cheetos, Doritos and Tostitos—a fact that other young children were quite happy to point out,”
He continues. “I was tired of being teased. One day I had a conversation with my mother about it, and she said, ‘You know, you could change your name. There are a number of other possibilities. She proceeded to list them: Rafael. Raph. Ralph. Edward. Ed. Eddie. ‘Or you could go by Ted.’ I found that a shocking concept.”
Cruz made the switch, especially after his mother pointed out that Ted was short for liberal Massachusetts senator, Democrat Ted Kennedy.
4. Desire for politics from a young age
Cruz speaking at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland – Wikipedia
The inspiration Cruz received from his father’s childhood stories motivated him to join politics from a young age. In high school, Cruz participated in a Houston-based group known at the time as the Free-Market Education Foundation, a program that taught high school students the philosophies of economists such as Milton Friedman and Frédéric Bastiat.
At Princeton University, Cruz studied public policy which is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs.
He also competed for the American Whig-Cliosophic Society’s Debate Panel and won the top speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debating Championship. In 1992, he was named U.S. National Speaker of the Year and, with his debate partner David Panton, Team of the Year by the American Parliamentary Debate Association.
After Princeton University, he joined Harvard Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics. He graduated n 1995 with a Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude.
5. How good of an attorney is Ted Cruz
Cruz questions US Customs and Border Protection leaders on COVID-19 preparedness in March 2020 – Wikimedia Commons
Apart from a successful political career, Ted Cruz has also enjoyed a successful law career. His successful law career was able to compliment his political ambitions.
Here is a glimpse to some of his accomplishments as solicitor general of Texas. Cruz argued before the U.S. Supreme Court nine times, winning five cases and losing four. His nine appearances before the Supreme Court are the most by any practicing lawyer in Texas or current member of Congress. He authored 70 U.S. Supreme Court briefs and presented 34 appellate oral arguments.
Just to highlight some of the recognition he has received. In 2008 American Lawyer magazine named Cruz one of the 50 Best Litigators under 45 in America, and The National Law Journal named him one of the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America. In 2010 Texas Lawyer named him one of the 25 Greatest Texas Lawyers of the Past Quarter Century.
6. The first Hispanic-American to serve as a U.S. senator from Texas
In 2012, Cruz was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first Hispanic-American to serve as a U.S. senator from Texas.
This is a big deal because in the past, the US was famously known for its discrimination against people of color. Because of this article, we will specially focus on Hispanics, who are the 2nd most discriminated against ethnic group after African-Americans according to a Pew research poll.
Cruz’s election into the senate represents the state’s racial progress.
7. Cruz’s involvement in the 2013 United States federal government shutdown
A government shutdown notice posted on October 1, 2013 – Wikipedia
From October 1 to October 17, 2013, the United States federal government entered a shutdown and cut back most routine operations because neither legislation appropriating funds for fiscal year 2014 nor a continuing resolution for the interim authorization of appropriations for fiscal year 2014 was enacted in time.
The “funding-gap” was created when the two chambers of Congress failed to agree to an appropriation continuing resolution. The Republican-led House of Representatives, encouraged by Ted Cruz, who gave a 21-hour Senate speech in an effort to hold up a federal budget bill and thereby defund the Affordable Care Act.
This move was extremely popular among Cruz’s supports because it “signaled the depth of Cruz’s commitment to rein in government”. However, Cruz has consistently denied any involvement in the 2013 government shutdown.
Which is arguable because he further went on to even cast several votes to prolong it and was blamed by many within his own party for prompting it.
8. Presidential Candidate
Cruz at the Values Voter Summit in October 2011 – Wikipedia
In 2016, Cruz ran for President of the United States even before finishing his first term as in the Senate. Talk about ambitions!
Cruz’s major opponent for the position was Trump, who won the New Hampshire primary and the South Carolina primary. The competition between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz was characterized by a series of public personal attacks.
Unfortunately, Trump scored landslide victories in New York and five northeastern states in April, before taking every delegate in the Indiana primary on May 3 with yet another majority of even that state’s popular vote. Without any further chances of forcing a contested convention, Cruz suspended his campaign.
Understandably rooting from his missed opportunity, Cruz declined to endorse Trump at the Republican convention, telling Republicans that they should “follow your conscience.” However, his changed in September when his approval ratings in Texas started to decline.
9. Cruz objected to Joe Biden’s presidency victory
Joe Biden Presidential Portrait- Wikimedia
Cruz objected to the certification of Joe Biden‘s victory in the 2020 presidential election and giving credence to the false claim that the election was fraudulent.
Up-to-date, Cruz refuses to admit President Joe Biden was legally elected. During a 2022 interview when asked whether he believed Biden had legitimately won the 2020 election his response was, there are a lot of folks in the media that try to, anytime a Republican is in front of a TV camera, try to say the election was fair and square and legitimate. You know who y’all don’t do that to? You don’t do it to Hillary Clinton. So, it’s illegitimate when Republicans win but not when Democrats win?”
10. Future ambitions
Cruz at the 2016 Republican National Convention, July 20, 2016 – Wikipedia
After addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting in Las Vegas in November 2022 he told reporters, “I’m running for reelection in the Senate, I’m focused on the battles in the United States Senate.”
It is no secret that Cruz has continued to express his desire to become president. The question now is will he take the safe route and continue focusing on his senatorial reelection, will he take a risk and focus on his 2024 presidential campaign, or will he amaze us all by managing to garner both seats.
