U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) launched his 2016 White House bid Monday, and courted cultural conservatives with a kickoff speech at Liberty University in Virginia.
Cruz said his mission is about "reigniting the promise of America." He's hoping to energize the evangelical wing of the Republican Party and supplement his already strong support among tea party and grassroots conservatives.
Cruz hit on issues like values, repealing the Affordable Care Act and abolishing the IRS.
North Texas Democrats don't see Cruz as a threat the party.
"I don't think a Cruz candidacy is good for anyone. For the Democrats, we don't know who our nominee is yet, but we are just spending our time talking to voters about what they care about now and it doesn't seem to be in line with what Ted Cruz believes in," said Taylor Holden the Executive Director of the Dallas County Democratic party.
Taylor Holden says she does not believe Cruz is good for Texas families.
"I think he is a dime a dozen guy., He doesn't have a lot of experience. He is a junior senator. Unfortunately, multiple Republican candidates, they are opposed to marriage equality. They don’t believe that climate change is real. He looks like the rest of them," said Holden.
It could be a crowded field in the 2016 bid for the White House with as many as four candidates with Texas ties; former Texas Governor Rick Perry, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who was born and raised in Texas and Sen. Rand Paul, who was raised in Jackson, Texas and went to Baylor University.
"It is great to have so many Texans in the race. The challenge for each of them to be to develop the infrastructure and inroads in Texas and get our primary voters," said Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Wade Emmert.
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NBC 5 spoke to The Dallas Morning News political columnist Gromer Jeffers Jr. about Cruz's strategy.
"He believes that 'well, conservatives sat home in 2008 and 2012, if we can get those folks off the couches and to the polls, then we have a chance of winning.' So he doesn't want to go to the middle, he wants to double down, go to the right."
Where They Stand: Ted Cruz on Key Issues of 2016 Campaign
Here's a snapshot of where Cruz stands on issues likely to be debated during the GOP's presidential primaries.
Immigration
The son of a Cuban immigrant, Cruz has been among his party's harshest critics of the Obama administration's executive actions on immigration, decrying them as "amnesty." He opposes a popular Texas law offering in-state tuition at public universities to the children of people in the U.S. illegally, and kept a campaign promise by pushing to triple the size of the U.S. Border Patrol. Cruz also has been criticized by Texas Democrats for more frequently visiting the early presidential primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina than his home state's border with Mexico.
Foreign Policy
He favors deploying U.S. ground forces to battle Islamic State militants if necessary, warns that failure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border means terrorists could slip over to U.S. soil, and pledges firm solidarity with Israel. He was among 47 senators who signed a letter warning that Congress could upend the deal being worked out by the U.S., Iran and others to control Tehran's nuclear program. The letter infuriated the White House, which considers a diplomatic deal the best way to dismantle Iran's nuclear program. But Cruz remained defiant, saying he'd sign it again if given the chance.
Budgets and Entitlements
Cruz talked for more than 21 hours in the Senate against President Barack Obama's health care law, solidifying himself as a tea party star. He's also vexed fellow Republicans by opposing their past budgets, demanding even deeper spending cuts while keeping the defense budget flush. He'd abolish the IRS and institute a flat tax, ideas that often float in GOP discourse but have never gone anywhere. A simple flat tax can only work by significantly increasing taxes for most low- and middle-income families or by cutting spending far more deeply than most lawmakers are willing to go.
Common Core
Opposing what he calls Washington bureaucrats overriding state and local school curriculums, Cruz has for months made "repeal Common Core" a rallying cry, even though the initiative was led by governors. That sets him apart from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. But Cruz agrees with Bush on the need to expand "school choice," promoting charter schools and helping parents get state money to remove their children from struggling public schools and send them to private and religious alternatives.
Social Issues
Cruz has pushed for barring federal judges from overriding state bans on gay marriage. He opposes abortion even in cases of rape, and once argued on Texas' behalf before the U.S. Supreme Court, successfully defending a federal law against late-term abortions. Cruz bucked the tradition of courting votes in agriculturally friendly Iowa by opposing renewable federal fuel standards that include ethanol subsidies. He's also opposed so-called net neutrality, likening it to "Obamacare for the Internet" and saying government regulation of cyberspace will stifle innovation.
Climate Change
When Cruz recently startled a New Hampshire 3-year-old girl by declaring "your world is on fire," he was attacking the Obama administration's foreign policy -- not talking about climate change. Cruz says that for the past 17 years, satellite images show that "there's been zero global warming." But scientific experts say satellite data is the wrong way to measure global warming, which the vast majority of scientists say is happening and is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Temperatures at ground level show that the planet has warmed since 1998 and that 2014 was the hottest on record. Cruz has acknowledged that climate change is real -- but does not attribute that to human activity.
