In an effort to repudiate suggestions that he is ineligible to be president of the United States, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released his birth certificate Sunday to The Dallas Morning News.
The birth certificate confirmed that the Texas Republican was born Dec. 22, 1970 in Calgary, Alberta. Because he was born to an American mother, Cruz instantly became an American citizen. But he also immediately became a Canadian citizen under the country’s law, as the Morning News noted. Given his dual citizenship, Cruz could not only launch a White House bid, but he could also run for Canadian Parliament. According to legal experts, he’ll remain a citizen of both countries unless he renounces his citizenship.
With Cruz looking increasingly like a 2016 contender, questions over his eligibility to be president have only grown louder — harkening back to the debunked conspiracy theories surrounding President Barack Obama’s citizenship.
“Senator Cruz became a U.S. citizen at birth, and he never had to go through a naturalization process after birth to become a U.S. citizen,” Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told the Morning News. “To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship, so there is nothing to renounce.”
This post has been updated.
