He's going to skip the exploratory committee and go straight for the jugular.
Ted Cruz plans to run for president.
The Houston Chronicle broke the news just before midnight Saturday evening, citing senior advisers speaking on the condition of anonymity who said that Cruz, the Texas Tea Party Republican elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, would pursue the presidency.
The announcement would make Cruz the first Republican to officially declare his candidacy.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, arrives at the Capitol in Washington for a vote on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Cruz will announced his candidacy at a convocation ceremony at Liberty University in Virginia, the Chronicle reported.
The senior advisers cited by the Chronicle said Cruz aims to raise some $40 to $50 million, and he will run as an unabashedly conservative candidate, in contrast to the "mushy middle" Republicans he's criticized in the past.
Cruz has strong support among the conservative base, as several high-profile polls have shown.
In a Drudge Report poll released at the beginning of February, Cruz took the No. 2 spot among likely presidential contenders, behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. In the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll at the end of February, Cruz came in third behind Walker and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
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