Ted Cruz is officially running for president.
The Texas senator announced his Republican run for the White House Monday before a crowd of evangelicals, repeatedly asking his audience to “imagine” what it would be like to have a conservative president fighting for conservative policies.
“God’s blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation,” Cruz told the crowd of students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. “And I believe God isn’t done with America yet. I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America. And that is why today, I am announcing that I am running for president of the United States.”
Trying to position himself as the conservative choice for president, Cruz, elected to the Senate in 2012, said: “It is a time for truth. It is a time for liberty. It is a time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States.”
Cruz, the first major candidate of either party to announce a White House campaign, first announced his intentions after midnight Monday morning on Twitter. The Republican is skipping the exploratory phase of running for president and jumping right into the race.
“Imagine in 2017, a new president, signing legislation repealing every word of Obamacare,” Cruz said.
The Republican also told the crowd to “imagine” a president who implements a flat tax and abolishes the IRS, who stands up for traditional marriage and against abortion, who fights for Second Amendment rights, who is against Common Core education standards and who gets along with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Today, roughly half of born again Christians aren’t voting,” Cruz told the crowd. “They’re staying home. Imagine, instead, millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values.”