| − | '''Ted Cruz''' (born December 22, 1970) is the junior [[United States Senator]] from Texas, having won the [[U.S. Senate]] seat vacated by [[Kay Bailey Hutchison]] in 2012. A [[conservative]] [[Republican]], he is the former Solicitor General of [[Texas]], the chief lawyer for the state before the [[U.S. Supreme Court]]. Cruz has authored more than eighty U.S. Supreme Court briefs and personally argued forty oral arguments, including nine before the U.S. Supreme Court. He graduated [[magna cum laude]] from [[Harvard Law School]] and served as an editor of the ''Harvard Law Review''. Cruz is promoted heavily by [[neocons]] who like his interventionalist foreign policy, but some conservatives see more grandstanding than achievement on social issues. | + | '''Ted Cruz''' (born December 22, 1970) is the junior [[United States Senator]] from Texas, having won the [[U.S. Senate]] seat vacated by [[Kay Bailey Hutchison]] in 2012. A [[conservative]] [[Republican]], he is the former Solicitor General of [[Texas]], the chief lawyer for the state before the [[U.S. Supreme Court]]. Cruz has authored more than eighty U.S. Supreme Court briefs and personally argued forty oral arguments, including nine before the U.S. Supreme Court. He graduated [[magna cum laude]] from [[Harvard Law School]] and served as an editor of the ''Harvard Law Review''. Cruz is promoted heavily by [[neocons]] who like his interventionalist foreign policy, but some conservatives see more grandstanding than achievement on social issues. Cruz would not pledge to prohibit enforcement of the [[homosexual marriage]] decision in ''[[Obergefell]]'', and failed to ask the parties in that case to petition for rehearing of the 5-4 decision. |
| − | Cruz has been supported by the [[Tea Party movement]], [[Tea Party Express]], [[Club for Growth]], [[FreedomWorks]], the [[Family Research Council]], Erick Erickson of [[RedState]], [[Mark Levin]], Senator [[Jim DeMint]], Senator [[Rand Paul]], Senator [[Pat Toomey]], and former Alaska Governor [[Sarah Palin]]. | + | In prior elections, Cruz has been supported by the [[Tea Party movement]], [[Tea Party Express]], [[Club for Growth]], [[FreedomWorks]], Erick Erickson of [[RedState]], [[Mark Levin]], and former Alaska Governor [[Sarah Palin]], but also by pro-[[homosexual]] donors as discussed below. |
| | In the Texas Senate primary elections of May 29, 2012, Cruz finished second to Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, but the nine-candidate Republican field forced a run-off. On July 31, Cruz defeated Dewhurst in a second round of voting. Cruz easily defeated Democrat former State Representative Paul Sadler in the general election. | | In the Texas Senate primary elections of May 29, 2012, Cruz finished second to Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, but the nine-candidate Republican field forced a run-off. On July 31, Cruz defeated Dewhurst in a second round of voting. Cruz easily defeated Democrat former State Representative Paul Sadler in the general election. |