LYNCHBURG, Virginia — Jenny Beth Martin, the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots and the head of the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund Super PAC, celebrated Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for the announcement of his presidential campaign shortly after midnight on Monday. In a statement to Breitbart News, Martin said that Cruz has been one of the most effective fighters for conservatism in his two years in the U.S. Senate.
“It’s fitting that Sen. Ted Cruz will be the first announced candidate in the GOP field. In his two short years in the U.S. Senate, he has yielded to no one in championing the values of personal freedom, economic freedom and a debt-free future,” Martin said. “As the field expands, we will look forward to seeing how the other candidates effort to advance the liberty movement and put forward conservative solutions toward undoing the mess that our ‘transformational’ president has made of our Republic.”
Cruz announced via Twitter right after midnight that he’s running for president, including a short video in which he makes his opening case for his campaign for the White House.
Cruz is the first candidate to announce a presidential campaign for 2016, and will further his case in a speech to Liberty University’s convocation on Monday morning.