Ted Cruz: Five things to know about the 2016 contender

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32023159

Version 0 of 1.

Two years ago Ted Cruz was a little known, newly elected US senator from Texas. Now he is the first officially announced candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

While the senator's fiery manner and aggressive posture have lately made a name for him in national political circles, there's more to him than meets the eye. Here are five things you should know about the Canadian-born son of a Cuban immigrant.

1. He's an establishment insider in outsider's clothing

Ted Cruz may style himself as an anti-establishment, grass-roots firebrand, but it's a relatively new persona. Mr Cruz has an Ivy League pedigree, having attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the Law Review and graduated magna cum laude.

He clerked with the legendary conservative jurist J. Michael Luttig on a US appeals court and for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. He worked on George W Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, held several executive branch jobs in his administration and served as Texas solicitor general, arguing nine cases before the US Supreme Court.

In the two years before he ran for the US Senate, he worked as a partner in the Houston office of the law firm Morgan Lewis, representing deep-pocketed corporate clients and making more than a million dollars a year.

His wife, Heidi Nelson Cruz, is a managing director with the Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs and has served on the Council of Foreign Relations (which Mr Cruz, during a campaign appearance, once called a "pernicious nest of snakes).

2. He's a dangerous underdog

When Mr Cruz ran for the US Senate in 2012, few political prognosticators gave him much of a chance to win. His opponent was David Dewhurst, the sitting lieutenant governor of Texas - generally considered the most powerful office in the state.

Mr Dewhurst's political might and statewide name recognition was matched by his financial muscle, with an estimated $200m personal fortune he used to fund his race.

During the campaign, Mr Cruz painted Mr Dewhurst as an unprincipled moderate. He contrasted the lieutenant governor's occasional compromises with political opponents with his own record as solicitor general, which included defending his state's use of the death penalty, late-term abortion bans and the display of a Ten Commandments monument on the state capitol grounds.

Mr Cruz finished close enough to Mr Dewhurst to force a runoff election after the first round of primary voting, then defeated him by 14% in a low-turnout second matchup.

3. He's a gifted public speaker

Mr Cruz has been a favourite of conservative audiences whenever he appears, usually garnering standing ovations. He likes to prowl the stage, speaking without a teleprompter.

His October 2011 appearance before the Values Voters Summit helped launch him as a national political figure, leading to a cover story in the National Review shortly thereafter.

When he was at Princeton, Mr Cruz was an award-winning debater. In 1992 he won both the US National Debating Championship and the North American Debating Championship. In 1995 he was a semifinalist in the World Universities Debating Championship.

As a teenager, Mr Cruz was a bit of a prodigy. He travelled the state with a group of other high school students, where he would recite the US Constitution from memory at small-town gatherings and big city conservative country clubs.

4. He has already made enemies in Washington

Mr Cruz didn't waste any time making waves as a newly minted US senator. In September 2013 he took the floor of the chamber for 21 hours to protest funding for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform programme.

He also worked closely with a group of hard-core conservatives in the US House of Representatives - over the objections of Republican congressional leadership - encouraging them to force a government shutdown when their demands for a rollback of healthcare reform weren't met.

Arizona Senator John McCain called Mr Cruz one of the "wacko birds" in Congress.

Mr Cruz also has actively supported numerous insurgent Tea Party candidates who have challenged incumbent Republicans. He has said that Republicans have to elect politicians who match their actions with their words.

"The Lord tells us we shall know them by their fruits," Mr Cruz said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February. "If a candidate tells you they oppose Obamacare, fantastic. When have you stood up and fought against it?"

Mr Cruz's sharp political elbows led ABC's Jonathan Karl to quip he might "need a food taster" when eating lunch with his fellow Senate Republicans.

5. He's got an uphill climb

So far Mr Cruz hasn't exactly caught fire on the presidential campaign trail. While currently unannounced candidates like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul are polling well in places like Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr Cruz is mired in single digits.

It could explain why the Texas senator has decided to jump ahead of his competitors with a formal campaign declaration in March. He needs to shake up the current dynamic and generate media attention. Holding his announcement in the conservative religious bastion of Lynchburg, Virginia - home of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University - which also happens to be relatively close to the political media hive of Washington, DC, could advance this strategy.

During his February CPAC speech Mr Cruz said he wants to reassemble Ronald Reagan's winning presidential coalition - to "bring together fiscal conservatives, and social conservatives and national security conservatives".

Hence he continues to advocate repealing "every word" of healthcare reform, is against gay marriage, opposes compromise on immigration reform, says Mr Obama has been soft on the Islamic State and wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service.

He noted that Reagan wasn't well liked by the Washington establishment when he ran for president either.

The difference, of course, is that in 1980, Reagan was only four years removed from nearly toppling then-President Gerald Ford in an insurgent primary campaign.

Despite all his bold talk, Mr Cruz is still a political neophyte. His Senate campaign was the only time he's appeared before voters.

If he's going to match the accomplishments of the patron saint of the Republican Party, he has his work cut out for him.