As election day draws closer, Ted Cruz’s campaign for his third term in the U.S. Senate is in full swing.
Cruz, a prominent Republican who ran for president in 2016, is facing off against Democratic challenger Colin Allred, a U.S. representative from Dallas. The two opponents will face off Tuesday night in a debate hosted by WFAA-TV (Channel 8).
Here are 10 things to know about U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz:
1. Born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1970 to Cuban immigrants, Cruz said he remembers little about his early life in Canada — mainly learning how to walk and playing in the snow. He moved to Houston with his parents in 1975 after his father, who had left the family when Cruz was 3, found religion and returned to his wife and son.
2. Until he was 13, Cruz went by Felito Cruz, short for Rafaelito, the diminutive of his name, Rafael. But kids in Houston teased him as Dorito Felito, and with other rhymes (Fritos, Cheetos, Tostitos).
“My father was furious with the decision,” Cruz wrote in his book, A Time for Truth, about picking the name Ted. “He viewed it as a rejection of him and his heritage.”
3. Cruz began developing conservative principles in his early teens. He was in a group in high school sponsored by the Free Enterprise Institute that learned the Constitution and traveled around Texas giving speeches on conservative ideas.
4. Cruz studied public policy at Princeton University for his undergraduate degree and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. While at Princeton, Cruz was a member of a debate team and won top honors his senior year at a national debate championship.
5. Cruz clerked for then-Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 1996. He missed watching his beloved Houston Rockets sweep the Orlando Magic in Game 4 of the 1995 NBA Finals so he could interview with Rehnquist.
6. Cruz bought his wife, Heidi, a .357 Magnum revolver to keep by their bedside for protection when he is away from Texas. He had to leave the hospital “just hours” after his first daughter, Caroline, was born to argue a capital punishment case at the Supreme Court.
7. Cruz was appointed to his first public office in 2003 by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, serving as solicitor general for the state. He held the role until 2008. He was elected to his first term in the Senate in 2012, beating Democrat Paul Sadler, and reelected in 2018 over challenger Beto O’Rourke.
8. Cruz ran for president in 2016, but lost the Republican nomination to former President Donald Trump. The two had a contentious relationship during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, with Cruz calling Trump “scared to debate” and Trump making the unsubstantiated statement that Cruz’s father was connected to Lee Harvey Oswald.
The two rekindled a relationship once Trump was elected president, with Cruz defending Trump’s allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
9. Some of Cruz’s recent legislative achievements include leading reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration’s funding, the passage of a bill to ease permitting requirements on new microchip facilities and a measure to streamline the process for new bridges across the Rio Grande.
10. Significant money has been poured into the 2024 Texas Senate race, with Allred reporting having raised $30 million in the third quarter of the year, more than Cruz’s $21 million. The senator has doubled down on his conservative values during election season and said Allred’s policy proposals are not “the values of Texans.”
Former Washington correspondent Matthew Adams contributed to this report.
