By: Abby Shapiro
Republican Texas Senator, Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz, was born December 22, 1970 in Calgary, Canada. Ted graduated from Princeton University in 1992. Then he attended Harvard Law School in 1995. Cruz became the first Hispanic Solicitor General from 2003-2008 and ran for senate in 2012. In 2016, Cruz is a Republican candidate for the 2016 Presidential Election. Cruz has spoken about many topics including Second Amendment rights, religious liberty, securing the border, jobs, and more.
Gun Control
Gun control has been a controversial topic between Democrats and Republicans for a very long time. Some support the Second Amendment, which is the constitutional right to bear arms, and some do not. Ted Cruz, however, does. In The New York Times, Ted Cruz said,“The Second Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice.” He also said, “It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny — for the protection of liberty.”
Foreign Policy
During an interview in April of 2015, Cruz opened up on his foreign policy beliefs. According to the Daily Caller, “Historically, America has always been reluctant to engage in military conflict,” said Cruz. “It’s worth noting, in eight years, the largest country Ronald Reagan ever invaded was Grenada.” On what he would do if he were president, Cruz said, “The proper approach, I believe, when you have a leader who is standing with America but not respecting human rights is not to undermine and attack that leader, but rather to urge reform.”
Civil Rights
The Human Rights Campaign stated that Ted Cruz is “not a fan of LGBT rights.” As Solicitor General, he denied Texas couples marriage equality, refused to disapprove “conversion therapy”, stood behind Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who denied a gay couple the right to receive a marriage license, and lastly has ruled in favor of marriage equality as “fundamentally illegitimate.”
The fight for women’s rights is a controversial and complicated issue with Ted Cruz. According to BallotPedia, in a conference call on August 25, 2015, Cruz encouraged more than a thousand religious leaders across the U.S. to rally support for an amendment to the federal budget bill to defund Planned Parenthood. The Houston Chronicle, a newspaper in Houston, said Cruz is “Strongly anti-abortion, he would allow the procedure only when a pregnancy endangers the mother’s life”
When it comes the to black lives matter movement, ThinkProgress.Org states that Cruz said, “If you look at the Black Lives Matter movement, one of the most disturbing things is more than one of their protests have embraced rabid rhetoric, rabid anti-police language, literally suggesting and embracing and celebrating the murder of police officers. That is disgraceful.”
Climate Change
Many Democratic candidates have spoken on how climate change is a problem. Cruz, however, thinks otherwise. In an interview, Cruz said, “Climate change is not science. It’s religion.” He also said, “Look at the language, where they call you a denier,” he said. “Denier is not the language of science … Any good scientist is a skeptic; if he’s not, he or she should not be a scientist.”
Education
According to Forbes Magazine, Cruz said, “We need to repeal Common Core. We need to get the federal government out of the business of dictating educational standards. Education is far too important for it to be governed by unelected bureaucrats in Washington. It should be at the state level or even better at the local level.” He also added, “Imagine embracing school choice as the civil rights issue of the next generation. That every single child, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of wealth or zip code, every child in America has a right to a quality education. And that’s true from all of the above, whether it is public schools or charter schools or private schools or Christian schools or parochial schools or homeschooled. Every child.”
Ted Cruz placed first with 27.6% of Republican voters in the Iowa caucus on February 1, 2016 against his fellow candidates.
