Ted Cruz: Republican Senator announces 2016 US presidential bid on Twitter

Cruz will formally announce his bid for the presidency today

Texas Senator Ted Cruz has announced he is running for president in 2016 (EPA/SHAWN THEW)

Texas Senator Ted Cruz last night got off and running in the 2016 Presidential race, announcing on Twitter that he would seek the Republican Party nomination. “I’m running for president and I hope to earn your support!” tweeted Cruz, 44, just after midnight on Sunday, making him the first high-profile candidate to officially declare his White House ambitions.

The tea-party darling trails behind a handful of his GOP colleagues in early polls, including Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida.

In a short video posted with his tweet, Cruz said, “It’s going to take a new generation of courageous conservatives to help make America great again. I’m ready to stand with you to lead the fight.”

Cruz, who was born in Canada but has an American mother, will formally announce his bid for the presidency today, in an address at Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia founded by the Reverend Jerry Falwell.

His announcement is expected to be followed next month by several other Republican hopefuls, not to mention the Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton.

Cruz’s campaign has already attracted criticism, however. California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that the Texas Senator was “absolutely unfit to be running for office.”

Citing Cruz’s sceptical stance on climate change, Brown said: “That man betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data. It’s shocking.”