Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund has decided to make an endorsement in the race for the Republican nomination for president.

We share the belief that America’s story is a story of exceptionalism - a story of a people who made a radical break with the past, who declared their joint conviction that rights flowed to them naturally, from their creator, and that government was their servant, not the other way around.

A people who were so determined to create a new governing structure based on this fundamental creed that they declared their independence from the greatest military power the world had ever known, and then risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to achieve freedom for themselves and their posterity…But at this point in history, our future is uncertain.

Decisions made by those in Washington - by both Democrats and Republicans alike - have radically transformed the relationship between the citizen and the government. They tax too much, they spend too much, and they borrow way too much.

And it’s not just about the money. Money is important, but what’s really important is that the money represents power and control - and when Washington has too much of it, We the People have too little of it.

That’s not the American Way, of course. We know the future is brighter - it always has been before.

We’re Americans, after all. We built a railroad that spanned a continent, and invented air travel, and saved the world for democracy not once but twice in the last century, and harnessed the power of the atom, and put a man on the moon, and cured diseases, and helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

As if those were not enough, in our spare time we invented baseball, and blue jeans, and Rock and Roll, and “Star Wars,” and Google, and YouTube, and the iPhone.

We know we have it in our power to unleash the second American Century - all we need to get there are the leaders who know the path, and can show Americans the way.

We represent the millions of Americans who have become supporters of the Tea Party movement.

We first began to organize ourselves seven years ago. We were alarmed at a government growing too big, too invasive, too powerful - the bailouts, the debt, cap and trade, Obamacare. We know a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.

We didn’t have the financial resources many other groups have, but we had heart, and we were determined to make Washington, D.C. listen. Our supporters drove overnight to attend rallies in the nation’s capital; many of them couldn’t even afford the cost of a hotel room, so they slept in their cars. We marched in the rain, and the snow, and we protested in the sweltering summer heat in the swampland of Washington.

We quickly had an impact on American politics: it was our supporters, championing our values, who flipped the House of Representatives in 2010.

The President’s supporters in the bureaucracy took note, and schemed to deploy the machinery of government against us. The most feared agency of the federal Leviathan - the IRS - sicced itself on us and on our donors. And the plan worked - we were largely sidelined for the duration of the 2012 election, so few championed our values and our voices were silenced.

But in 2013, Lois Lerner admitted to the illegal targeting of Tea Party groups, and our movement was energized once more. We had an impact on the campaigns of 2014, when we helped do for the Senate what we had done for the House four years earlier. Republicans on Capitol Hill now enjoy their largest majority in the House since Herbert Hoover was President because of our values.

And now we turn our gaze to the horizon, to the 2016 elections, and we seek a candidate who shares our values and will promote our principles - personal freedom, economic freedom, and a debt free future.

We know that we stand no chance of repealing Obamacare and restoring personal freedom unless there is a courageous conservative in the White House.

We know that we stand no chance of reforming the tax code and unleashing the American economy to increase our economic freedom unless there is a courageous conservative in the White House.

We know that we stand no chance of stopping Washington’s spending spree and getting started on a debt-free future unless there is a courageous conservative in the White House.

So six months ago, we asked our members and supporters if they wanted us to make an endorsement in the presidential nomination contest. They overwhelmingly said, “Yes!”

We invited the candidates to complete and return a questionnaire, so our supporters could research them. We put information on our website. We engaged in webinars, circulated emails, made phone calls, and held more conversations than I can remember.

It is important to us that we remain a united movement, so that our influence on the process is strong. Consequently, we decided we would only make an endorsement if a supermajority of our supporters voted to endorse one candidate. Four weeks ago, we launched that process. Since then, we had four rounds of balloting. Nearly 100,000 ballots were cast.

On behalf of our millions of supporters, we are honored to announce our endorsement of a man who has the courage and the trustworthiness necessary to lead our nation.

A man who has a proven track record of standing up and fighting for our values, no matter the opposition; a man who has demonstrated his word is his bond, and he can be counted on to follow through on the promises he makes to voters; a man who understands and loves our Constitution, and who honors and defends American Exceptionalism; A man who can and will lead us into the next American century.

Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund is proud to endorse our friend, Sen. Ted Cruz, for president of the United States!

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