Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) father on Sunday dismissed from the far-right fringe of his son’s eligibility to run for higher office.
Some people in so-called “strict constitutionalist” circles believe that Cruz is ineligible to run for President because he was born in Calgary, Alberta, where his Cuban father and American mother were working for a time.
Rafael Cruz was asked Sunday to address concerns about his son’s presidential eligibility after a speech to the National Federation of Republican Assemblies in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the Washington Post.
“The Naturalization Act of 1790 states quite clearly: a child born of a U.S.-born mother anywhere in the world is a U.S. citizen by birth and therefore a natural-born citizen,” the elder Cruz, who was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2005, responded, as quoted by the newspaper.
The senator from Texas completed the process of renouncing his Canadian citizenship in summer 2014 ahead of his widely anticipated presidential bid. Taking that step wasn’t enough to satisfy some fringe bloggers, though.
The elder Cruz told the audience at the National Federation of Republican Assemblies not to be swayed by the birther chatter.
“Don’t let yourself be misguided by erroneous information,” he told the audience, as quoted by the Post. He added: “There is no one the establishment is more afraid of than Ted Cruz. If there was any validity to this issue, you’d see 20 or 30 articles written in the newspapers trying to tear him down. … They know they can’t go there.”
Still, Rafael Cruz has dabbled in birtherism himself. The elder Cruz said he’d like to send President Barack Obama “back to Kenya” while stumping for his son, then a Senate candidate, in 2012. He’s also suggested that the President is a practicing Muslim.