Ted Cruz (Republican Party) is a member of the U.S. Senate from Texas. He assumed office on January 3, 2013. His current term ends on January 3, 2025.
Cruz (Republican Party) is running for re-election to the U.S. Senate to represent Texas. He declared candidacy for the Republican primary scheduled on March 5, 2024.
Cruz previously served as Solicitor General for Texas from 2003-2008, during which he argued nine cases before the Supreme Court.
He won re-election in 2018, defeating Beto O'Rourke in the general election. The race saw the most spending in U.S. history specifically by the candidates themselves.
Cruz ran for the Republican Party nomination for president in 2016. He suspended his presidential campaign on May 3, 2016, after losing the Indiana Republican primary to Donald Trump.
Cruz was one of four Latino U.S. senators serving in the 115th Congress.
Cruz defeated David Dewhurst in the Republican Party primary for United States Senate in 2012. Dewhurst had finished in first place in the initial primary, with Cruz in second. After both advanced to the runoff, Cruz won with 56 percent of the vote.
Cruz was included on President Donald Trump’s (R) list of 20 potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees released on September 9, 2020. President Trump (R) nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the seat on September 26, 2020. For more information on the 2020 Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18, 2020, click here.
Cruz was born in Calgary in Alberta, Canada, where his parents were working in the Alberta oil fields. In 1974 they returned to the Houston area.
Cruz graduated from Second Baptist High School as valedictorian in 1988. He earned his B.A. in Public Policy from Princeton University in 1992. He went on to receive his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1995. Cruz then worked in the following positions in the law field: law clerk to Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist, associate deputy attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice and director of the Office of Policy Planning for the Federal Trade Commission.
Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 to 2008. In this role he was the youngest Solicitor General in the nation, as well as the longest-serving and first Hispanic Solicitor General in the state. Among his accomplishments, Cruz argued 40 oral arguments, including nine before the U.S. Supreme Court.
