Ted Cruz, American politician and lawyer, was born on December 22, 1970, at Foothills Medical Center in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

He is the son of Rafael Cruz and Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson. Cruz and his three siblings share the same parents; Miriam Cruz, Roxana Cruz and Michael Wilson.

Cruz attended Awty International School in Houston for college. Cruz attended Second Baptist High School in Houston, where he graduated valedictorian in 1988, and Faith West Academy, a private school near Katy, Texas.

Cruz participated in a program run by the Free Market Education Foundation, a Houston-based organization that introduced high school students to the theories of economists such as Milton Friedman and Frédéric Bastiat.

Cruz studied public policy at Princeton University after graduating from high school. While attending Princeton, he participated in American Whig-Cliosophic Society debate and won the keynote speaker award at the 1992 North American Debating Championship and the 1992 United States National Debating Championship.

ALSO READ: Parents of Ted Cruz: meet Rafael and Eleanor

He and his debate partner David Panton were named Team of the Year by the American Quantity Debate Association in 1992. He was also named the United States National Speaker of the Year. Cruz and Panton then competed for Harvard Law School in the 1995 World Debating Championships, where they lost to an Australian team in the semifinals.

The Princeton debate team named its annual novice competition after Cruz. Cruz graduated with honors from Princeton in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Cruz then enrolled at Harvard Law School, where he studied law and economics as a John M. Olin Fellow.

He was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Review, and founding editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review.

Cruz has represented Texas as a junior United States senator since 2013. Cruz, a Republican, served as attorney general of Texas from 2003 to 2008.

Cruz pursued a political career after earning degrees from Harvard Law School and Princeton University. Before serving as attorney general of Texas from 2003 to 2008, he worked as a policy advisor in the administration of George W. Bush.

Cruz was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, becoming the first Hispanic American to represent Texas in that body. Cruz has consistently supported conservative economic and social policies in the Senate; During the partial government shutdown in the United States in 2013, he played a key role in efforts to persuade Congress and President Barack Obama to defund the Affordable Care Act.

In a close Senate race in 2018, he defeated Democratic rival Beto O’Rourke and won re-election. Cruz ran for president of the United States in 2016 and came in second to Donald Trump in the Republican primary.

Cruz and Trump battled in a bitterly contentious race for the Republican presidential nomination, marked by a series of open personal conflicts. After securing the nomination, he initially refused to support Trump’s campaign, but when Trump was elected president, he changed his mind.

Cruz faced strong political and public backlash following the attack on the Capitol in January 2021, as he questioned the official declaration of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election and supported the false claim according to that the election was rigged.

Children of Ted Cruz: Meet Caroline and Catherine

Cruz was blessed with two daughters; Caroline Camille Cruz and Catherine Christiane Cruz.

Caroline Camille Cruz was born in 2008 and is currently 14 years old. Her sister Catherine Christiane Cruz was also born in 2011 and is currently 11 years old.