The U.S. Senator and noted Tea Party champion was originally born in the Canadian city of Calgary, which is also known as Cowtown for some reason.
But wait! Doesn't the constitution say you need to be a red-blooded American in order to be president?!
"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President," reads section 1 of article II of the constitution.
Everybody calm down just a white hot, Canadian minute.
Not ones for excessive detail, the Founding Fathers didn't actually clarify what they meant by "natural born citizen."
A 2011 Congressional Research Service report rather helpfully analyzed all the relevant legal decisions and opinions on the term, and made this conclusion:
"The weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term "natural born" citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship "by birth" or "at birth," either by being born "in" the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents; or by being born in other situations meeting legal requirements for U.S. citizenship "at birth." Such term, however, would not include a person who was not a U.S. citizen by birth or at birth, and who was thus born an "alien" required to go through the legal process of "naturalization" to become a U.S. citizen."
The emphasis on "by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents" is ours, because it applies to the ostensible Canuck-cum-candidate.
Cruz is an American citizen and renounced his Canadian citizenship back in 2013 when he made the shocking discovery that he was a dual citizen.
Despite being born in the Great White North, Cruz is the son of an American woman born in the U.S. and a Cuban father.
Cruz is a citizen. He didn't need to become naturalized in order to become a citizen, instead becoming one "by birth." His birth mother was American, therefore he is American.
Barring any shocking decision otherwise from the courts, that means Cruz CAN run for president after all!
Constitutional law, eh?
Read the 2011 Congressional Research Service report for yourself here:
