WASHINGTON -- Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz will officially announce on Monday his 2016 presidential bid. He will be the first candidate to enter what is expected to be a crowded Republican primary.
The news was first reported by a Texas daily the Houston Chronicle around Saturday midnight that the first-term Texas Senator is scheduled to speak Monday at Liberty University in Virginia. Instead of forming an exploratory committee, Cruz will launch a presidential bid outright, said the report.
As a leader of the Tea Party movement, Cruz is popular among conservative constituencies for not shying away from challenging both U.S. President Barack Obamaand his fellow Republicans in contested immigration and medicare policies.
However, with more than a dozen predominant Republicans expressing interest in the 2016 presidential bid, Cruz has a long way to go in winning broader support in the Republican base. According to a recent CNN/ORC poll, only 4 percent of Republicans and independents who lean to the Republican party would support Cruz in the Republican primary.
The poll also showed no potential candidates in the Republican party was favored by a significant margin among Republican voters, with top contender Jeb Bush having 16 percent of Republican support.
Meanwhile, party support for potential Democratic candidates was predominately concentrated on Hillary Clinton, who had a rate of 62 percent in the March poll, while second top contender, Vice President Joe Biden, stood at 15 percent.
Clinton was also found to beat all the major potential Republican rivals in a hypothetical general election.
Clinton is expected to announce her bid for the presidency early April.
However, Clinton's potential predominance in the 2016 Democratic primary raised questions among some Democrats, who said it would be a mistake to let Clinton win the party's nomination without a strong opposition, especially after the media firestorm over her overcautious emailing habits put a dent in her integrity among some voters.
