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When Republican presidential posturing turns into definitive action, the critics come out like clockwork. It happened last week when Donald Trump announced he had formed a presidential exploratory committee and was immediately met with accusations he was disingenuous, unqualified or seeking publicity. Something similar is now underway against Sen. Ted Cruz, who will step before a Liberty University student convocation at precisely 10 a.m. on Monday and reveal he’s running for the White House in 2016. The Texas Republican is skipping the exploratory phase. Caustic headlines have arrived before he even gets to the microphone, these from the last 48...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will announce Monday that he is launching his campaign to become the 2016 Republican nominee for president. Cruz has been positioning for this nomination almost since he entered the upper chamber in 2012. His announcement takes place at a bastion of conservatism, Liberty University, the institution founded by evangelical leader Jerry Falwell. Cruz is going to run from the right. He has spent much of his short career in Washington blasting the "mushy middle" of his party (which might be news to most Democrats) which he dismisses as a "failed electoral strategy." During a recent visit...

Now that it’s been confirmed that Ted Cruz is running for president, it’s time for everyone to weigh in, and Scott Walker was one of the first to be asked about the announcement on Fox News. Walker was very gracious to Ted Cruz, while jabbing at Jeb Bush yet again by saying we need a fresh face to combat Hillary’s haggard decrepit visage. Watch.. [comments start at 6 minute mark] [full interview with Fox runs around 8:00] While Cruz will almost certainly get a bump for being the first candidate to declare his campaign, Walker is still ahead in the...

Senator Ted Cruz spoke at Heritage Action’s 2015 Conservative Policy Summit on Monday and announced a ten point plan he believes the nation, led by a Republican Congress, should focus on for 2016.The 2016 potential presidential candidate, a staunch defender of the U.S. Constitution, outlined his plan, which focused on restoring a growing job market, increasing individual liberty, and enhancing national security (WATCH FULL SPEECH BELOW).Cruz said that the GOP has an “incredible opportunity” to lead and that the historic 2014 midterm election results weren’t because voters suddenly loved Republicans, but that they were “roundly repudiating the path we’re on.” Cruz...

(CNN)Ted Cruz is first out the gate. The first-term senator from Texas announced early Monday he is running for president. Cruz announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in a 30-second video message in a tweet shortly after midnight Monday. Later in the day, he will appear at Virginia's Liberty University, the largest Christian university in the world, where he will make his in-person declaration. "I'm running for President and I hope to earn your support!" Cruz said in his tweet.Cruz, 44, will be the first candidate to formally throw his hat in the ring for what's expected...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)[95%] will today announce he is running for President. At our very first RedState Gathering, Ted Cruz showed up. He was the Solicitor General of Texas. I did not know him, but he’d gone to law school with a friend and several other friends highly recommended him. He stood on stage to speak along with another guy named Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)[82%]. Both of them dazzled the crowd in Atlanta. They both got repeated standing ovations. They both took questions from the crowd and never made a misstep. I hope they will both return to Atlanta this...

Texas commemorates the Confederacy in many ways, from an annual celebration of Confederate Heroes Day each January to monuments on the grounds of the state Capitol in Austin. Among the memorials is one that has stood for more than a century, bearing an image of the Confederate battle flag etched in marble. But you're out of luck if you want to put that flag on your license plate. Texas says that would be offensive.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz plans to announce on Monday that he will run for president in 2016, the Houston Chronicle reported on its website. The newspaper, citing senior advisers to the Texas senator who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported that Cruz would launch a presidential bid outright rather than the traditional path of forming an exploratory committee.

Excerpted from Mad World News: The first Islamic Sharia Court in the U.S. just got some very bad news, and Muslims are not happy.In a close 5-4 vote, the city of Irving ruled to back the Texas state bill banning foreign law from the state. It basically would slam the door in their faces, preventing them from spreading Sharia throughout the country. Now they are accusing the city council of unfairly being targeted.All four of the “voluntary” court’s lawyers were unlicensed in the state of Texas, a third degree felony. Mayor Beth Van Duyne received several phone calls on the...

Sen. Ted Cruz plans to announce Monday that he will run for president of the United States, accelerating his already rapid three-year rise from a tea party insurgent in Texas into a divisive political force in Washington. Cruz will launch a presidential bid outright rather than form an exploratory committee, said senior advisers with direct knowledge of his plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made yet. They say he is done exploring and is now ready to become the first Republican presidential candidate. …

Move to eliminate all U.S. funding for diplomacy with Iran Congressional leaders have begun pressuring their colleagues to cut off all U.S. funding for the ongoing talks with Iran over its contested nuclear program as the Obama administration rushes to hash out the details of a deal in the coming months, according to multiple sources and a letter that will be sent next week to appropriators in the House of Representatives. With the deadline approaching, congressional Republicans have been exasperated by the Obama administration’s efforts to prevent them from having any oversight over the deal.

Oh, how I wish Texas lawmakers cared as much about our children as they do their guns. And wouldn’t it be terrific if the folks who represent us in Austin despised injustice as much as they do immigration and taxes? I suppose, given the makeup of our state Legislature and the leadership in the top statewide offices, that’s a little too much to hope for. It is no surprise that new gun legislation has been put on a fast track at the Capitol, sailing through committee and floor votes with ease, while our underfunded public schools likely will languish.

Options to stop a nuclear Iran are not yet limited to President Obama’s bad deal or war WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Trent Franks, R-AZ-8, today reintroduced the Sanction Iran, Safeguard America Act to impose sanctions against Iran and help safeguard America in the face of the Obama Administration’s disastrous proposed nuclear deal with Iran.“As the self-perpetuating negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program drag on, it is time for a moment of clarity,” said Sen. Cruz. “It is time to tell the American people the truth. These talks are not going to prevent the Islamic Republic...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Several potential Republican candidates for president are scheduled to speak at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Nashville in April. The speakers include U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The NRA's annual meeting takes place April 10-12, and the GOP politicians are scheduled to appear as part of an event put on by the NRA's lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action.

Sen. Ted Cruz is expanding his footprint into South Carolina, hiring a veteran conservative operative there to advise his likely 2016 presidential campaign.The Texas Republican's political team confirmed Monday that it has tapped LaDonna Ryggs to help lead Cruz' efforts in South Carolina. The state hosts the third nominating contest of the 2016 primary — and first in the GOP-dominated South. Ryggs, a former GOP county chairman, isn't necessarily a household name. But she has close ties to the Republican base that Cruz hopes will fuel his rise. Ryggs also has relationships with the party Establishment and bring's to the...

HOUSTON, Texas – Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) will cap off a star-studded evening with a keynote address at the Harris County GOP Lincoln-Reagan Dinner on March 28. The event is expected to be the largest in the history of the Harris County GOP and will be attended by many statewide elected officials, Harris County officials, and grassroots activists. For the third year in a row, the keynote address will be delivered by a 2016 Republican presidential hopeful. Governor Walker will deliver this year’s keynote address to what is expected to be a crowd of at least eight hundred people,...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is set to issue the first major federal regulations on hydraulic fracturing on Friday, with new mandates targeting oil and gas wells on public land. The Interior Department rule reflects years of work by regulators seeking to balance environmental interests and economic imperatives in setting baseline standards for the way wells are constructed and stimulated for oil and gas production. But the final version, set to be unveiled Friday by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, according to stakeholders familiar with the timeline, is unlikely to appease environmentalists who have argued for strong protections or oil...

It was more than five years ago that the gunshots rang out, but those of us who survived can still hear their echoes. On Nov. 5, 2009, an Army psychiatrist named Nidal Hasan—an American radicalized by extremist Islamic beliefs—opened fire on his fellow soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 14 people, including an unborn child, and wounding 32. I was there. A beloved friend, Capt. John Gaffaney, died at my knees. I was slated to become the shooter’s direct supervisor and later learned I was at the top of his hit list. That day has faded from the minds of...

Employees at several Austin businesses have found stickers saying "exclusively for white people" placed on their windows, sparking an investigation into their origin and condemnation from the mayor. Mayor Steve Adler said the stickers discovered Wednesday morning were "an appalling and offensive display of ignorance in our city." The stickers also say "Maximum of 5 colored customers / colored BOH staff accepted," apparently referring to the "back of house" operations at a restaurant.

Harris Media, based in Austin, Texas, masterminded the prime minister's digital campaign, though it denies doing so at the request of the U.S. Republican Party. The election victory of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has highlighted the role of political American strategists Vince Harris and Michael Duncan, who managed the Likud's digital campaign in the six weeks leading up to the election. Harris, 26, is considered the media wonder child of the Republican Party in the United States. His Austin, Texas-based company, Harris Media, masterminded the 2012 Senate campaign of Ted Cruz, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, and he is currently...