Ted Cruz

Renowned for his ultra-conservative views, politician Ted Cruz became Texas' longest-serving Solicitor General before taking office as the state's U.S. Senator where he went onto challenge Donald Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Born in Calgary, Alberta in 1970, Cruz studied public policy at Princeton University, where he first established himself as an award-winning debater, and continued his education at Harvard Law School, also serving as the founding editor of Harvard Law Review. Cruz then became the first Hispanic to clerk for a Chief Justice of the United States, helped prepare testimony for the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton, and served as a private counsel for Congressman John Boehner. In 1999, he joined the George W. Bush Presidential campaign as a domestic policy advisor and a year later played a key part in the Florida recount case which Bush controversially won.

Following stints as the associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice and the director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, Cruz was appointed as the Solicitor General of Texas in 2003. During his five-year spell, he argued before the Supreme Court of the United States nine times, winning five cases including an advocacy for the right to keep and bear arms, and the defence against an attempt to re-open the files of 51 Mexican death row inmates.

Cruz then briefly returned to private practice where he successfully defended two record-setting personal injury awards before announcing his candidacy for the 2012 United States Senate election. Despite spending almost a third less than his rival, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, Cruz won the Republican primary by a 14-point margin and then went onto triumph over Democrat Paul Sadler in the general election with 56.4% of the vote.

Cruz rose to national prominence after taking office in 2013 thanks to a number of provocative speeches including a 21-hour diatribe against Obamacare which led to the government shutdown, while same-sex marriage, abortion and a higher minimum wage were just some of the other issues which he vehemently opposed. Although his incendiary behaviour proved to be divisive within the Republican party, Cruz emerged as one of the most credible frontrunners when he threw his hat into the ring for the 2016 presidential election.

Cruz subsequently became the first Hispanic to win a presidential primary election when he triumphed in the Iowa caucuses, and thanks to victories in the likes of Kansas, Idaho and his home state, established himself as Donald Trump's main challenger for the Republican nomination.