Main article:
Ted Cruz presidential campaign, 2016 § Eligibility
Further information:
Natural-born-citizen clause
Cruz has said that when he was a child, his mother told him that she would have to make an affirmative act to claim
Canadian citizenship for him, so his family assumed that he did not hold Canadian citizenship.
[257] In August 2013, after the
Dallas Morning News pointed out that he had
dual Canadian-American citizenship,
[258][259] he applied to formally r
enounce his Canadian citizenship and ceased being a citizen of Canada on May 14, 2014.
[257][260]
Several lawsuits and ballot challenges asserting that Cruz is ineligible to become U.S. president have been filed.
[261][262][263][264][265][266][267] No lawsuit or challenge has been successful, and in February 2016, the Illinois Board of Elections ruled in Cruz's favor, stating, "The candidate is a natural born citizen by virtue of being born in Canada to his mother who was a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth."
[268]