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I Warren Smith World News Group the rise of Ted Cruz on the national stage is
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meteoric he was the first Hispanic Solicitor General of the State of Texas
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at the time of his appointment to that post in 2003
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he was the youngest solicitor general in the United States
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he's argued nearly a dozen cases before the US Supreme Court
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and written more than 50 supreme court briefs the son of a Cuban immigrant who
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became a Baptist pastor
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Cruz became a favorite of the Tea Party movement and in 2012 defeated the Texas
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to win the republican party's nomination for the US Senate
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he won the general election with more than fifty six percent of the vote
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I'm it would take cruises apartment just west of downtown houston
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an apartment with panoramic view of the city that he shares with his wife Heidi
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and two daughters I began by asking him
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how he originally became interested in politics
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I get very involved in a group in his chin nonprofit that was called
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the free enterprise instead and what they did is they took high school
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students and they had us
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study free-market economics so we would read milt freedman
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hi meese's Ostia and we would right
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a twenty minute never a speech free-market economics
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and then we would to roll around the state speaking about free market
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economics and this is as a
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as a kid is you know 13 14 15 years old
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the group then formed a spinoff
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it was called constitutional cromer's
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and it was five high school students we spent hundreds of hours
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studying the Constitution and we
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never sized shorten the monikers Ste
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and then went to a Texas and we go speak said we're big brodry
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lover wanna Skloot and will you be sitting there having lunch
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I get a five high school students with set-up piece
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we would right from there the entire US Coast
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shorten the money he still be there
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I can't do it all up but I can tell you for example
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ATC CNC CPCC on mama yes
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wanna first exactly what on earth is that that his article 1 section 8 of the
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taxes credit commerce naturalization cordage counterfeiting
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post office copyright courts piracy army Warnie
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militia money for which Washington DC
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rules necessary and proper those resident enumerated powers
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copters if it's not on that list the constitution doesn't give it to Congress
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to because Ted Cruz burst onto the national scene is such a young age
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he also had a young and growing family I asked him if that fact if his life made
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a difference in his decision to run for high office
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I also asked him how it's paid informs us thinking now
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tell you the single hardest part running for office is the impact on the fam
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you know heidi and I've got two little girls got a four-year-old
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one when I walk out her home in the morning and Caroline our oldest daughter
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wraps her arms around my way its says don't go to the breaks your heart
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and and I spend a lot of time on the road away from
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shy away from and that's really tough but I'll tell you at the same time that
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that's why I am doing I don't wanna love my daughter's
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twenty years and tell them they've inherited a country that's gone bankrupt
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that we lost the freest the most prosperous
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nation in the history of the world and then I could have done something to help
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and I did and I stayed home I
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didn't enter the fray I didn't enter the arena because I wasn't willing to
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to get I don't want to have that conversation with my daughters
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I was raised in the church and and I
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came to Christ when I was 8 and you know being a Christian having a up
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personal relationship with Jesus Christ say
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use it's an integral part of life you know I'll tell you something though or
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not I think that running for public office
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obligation K to be very careful with how you talk about
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because I think far too many candidates
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where their faith and there's and and they stand up and say
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got told me to run and I'll tell you my views a voter whenever I hear some
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politicians say that
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is that's great one got tells me to vote for you will be on the same page
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Ted Cruz has criticized the republican party for being
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tone-deaf in his outreach to Hispanics I asked him what the republican party
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differently but Hispanics or a profoundly conservative cool
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the values that Hispanic community are republican values
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if you look at the values that resonate most profoundly
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Hispanic community their faith family
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patriotism and hard work the prophets republicans
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this is not our values and not our policies
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it's that many Republican candidates don't communicate to the Hispanic
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that that conveys respect understand
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he is a problem with the messengers and how they communicate the value is rather
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than the values themselves
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one of the more fascinating aspects of the career
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Ted Cruz is this experience before the Supreme Court
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I asked him if he was nervous the first time he appeared before the court
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in 2003 when he was still in his early 30s
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was 32 and I spent a great deal it unprepared
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hundreds and hundreds of hours pored over the case love poured over the
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did four minutes in and I actually was convinced I said you know you ready for
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and I was convinced I wasn't nervous and then the night before I lay down in bed
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I didn't sleep a wink I stared at the ceiling the entire night and I remember
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laughing to myself going well
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maybe you're not quite as commish think York I will tell you that there is no
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experience as a lawyer
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like arguing in front of the US Supreme Court I mean it is
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invigorating it is electrifying
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so I out a an anecdote about the court
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what I'm wearing down are my argument says
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these particular bids I born in just about every oral argument ideas
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solicitor general a Texas litigators are superstitious bunch
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and I were these boots for just about every argument
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except I am embarrassed and ashamed to say
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in front of the US Supreme Court and the reason is my former boss chief justice
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was a stickler for a tire
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he had more than once begun an argument
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by admonishing Council leaning forward saying
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are Council that color suit you're wearing
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is inappropriate for argument at this court
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he did not think Brown was an appropriate color for anyone to wear it
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and and I was very close to the chief justice but but there was a non-zero
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chance that if I were these boots
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the argument wouldn't begin with talking about the case it would begin with the
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advising me this footwear was not appropriate the Supreme Court
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if so so much to my my deep should grant in Shane
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what I argue that the court I went and pulled out of the dust in my closet wing
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tips and put them on
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and went to do the arc now when I was about halfway through my 10 years SG
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chief justice rehnquist past and John Roberts became the new jean-juste
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in and I've known John Roberts many many years on he was also a rehnquist clerk
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and so he and I were friends for
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for over a decade before he became chief just
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and so I saw him shortly there afterwards and I guess I was feeling a
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cheeky because I asked him ice I said you know
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tell me chief do you have any views
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on the appropriateness boots as footwear at oral argument
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and and John Roberts laughed any said Ted
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if you representing the state of Texas they're not only appropriate they are
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it so ever since then I have worn my argument boots at the court
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but it took a special dispensation for the Chief Justice for me to screw up the
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but that spirit well that's a great story well
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other than the advice for a Texas
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Solicitor General to make sure he has his argument boots on
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what other advice would you have for young people
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you know I'd say couple things I'd say number one follow your passions
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life is too short to spend it doing things you despise that you don't love
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you know I would say ask yourself when you wake up in the morning
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what do you think it up when you go to bed at night what are you thinking about
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what are your passion
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what makes you feel alive I think God gives us passions and as a direction
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that he wants us to go and and follow your heart
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you will be happier and you'll do a better job if you love what you're doing
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and wanted the real blessings have growing up in the home I did
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with a father that as a teenager had been imprisoned and tortured at nearly
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issue understood from a very young age
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that having principal men and women in office
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is how you protect yourself tyranny
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that's what the stakes you know President Reagan famously described
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america is a shining city on a hill 8
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beacon of hope and freedom for the world that that is our legacy
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in our legacy is in jeopardy right now and and I hope to play a part
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standing shoulder to shoulder with Patriots across texas
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and across the country and fighting to restore our nation
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Ted Cruz was sworn in as United States Senator in January of 2013
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in a show of confidence from his colleagues he was appointed vice
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chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee
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that's a group of the Senate's most conservative members
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and it means that even as a freshman Ted Cruz is likely to have a significant
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voice on the national stage
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one that will likely be hearing from for years to come
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reporting for World News Group new Christian voices series
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