WASHINGTON: And they're off. Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz became the first candidate to announce that he will run for president in 2016 in what is expected to be a crowded field that will be winnowed down to two after some 15 months of bruising political battle.
USA News Cruz, a Canada-born Tea Party favorite, launched his campaign with a short tweet ("I'm running for President and I hope to earn your support!") accompanied by a 30-second video featuring him speaking over a montage of farm fields, city skylines, landmarks and symbols. He called on "a new generation of courageous conservatives to help make America great again." Dispensing with the usual route of forming an "exploratory committee" to test the waters, Cruz also launched a campaign website, and is expected to make his first major speech at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Monday.
Cruz thus becomes the first of several Republican aspirants, including Senate colleagues Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Marco Rubio (Florida), and current and former governors Jeb Bush (Florida) and Scott Walker (Wisconsin), who are expected to enter the fray.
The Democratic Party, too, is bubbling with candidates, including frontrunner Hillary Clinton, vice-president Joe Biden, former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, among others.
Between the next few weeks and the fall of 2016, when the two parties will formally anoint a single aspirant as a presidential candidate at a party convention, contenders on both sides will hash it out in a billion-dollar bash of speeches, debates, and offensive advertising. The tortuous 15-month long spectacle forms the longest and most expensive election campaign of any country in the world.
Between the next few weeks and the fall of 2016, when the two parties will formally anoint a single aspirant as a presidential candidate at a party convention, contenders on both sides will hash it out in a billion-dollar bash of speeches, debates, and offensive advertising. The tortuous 15-month long spectacle forms the longest and most expensive election campaign of any country in the world.
Cruz, 44, is a Texas conservative who is Hispanic on his paternal side (his father is Cuban) and born in Canada to an American mother. He appears to have overcome questions about his eligibility to be the US president on account of his Canadian-birth by showing that his mother was an American citizen who lived in the US for 10 years as required under the Nationality Act, thus making him a dual US citizen. He gave up dual Canadian citizenship some months back.
Cruz' pronouncements on India have been minimal, but soon after Narendra Modi's election as PM in May 2014, he posted a message on his Facebook account congratulating India's "new hope and aspiration" and hoping "Texas and the United States can look forward to a long and prosperous friendship" with India.
No comments:
Post a Comment