Time Warner Cable News - Presidential Hopeful Ted Cruz Campaigns in SC

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By Yoojin Cho

Texas republican senator Ted Cruz was the first person to jump into the 2016 presidential campaign, and he is wasting no time asking for votes. Cruz traveled to South Carolina on Friday.

He asked voters at the town hall meeting to choose a true conservative as their next President of the United States.

"Democrats passed legislation to gut that fundamental protections of our religious liberty. I am sorry to tell you, out of 56 Democrats in the Senate last year, every single one voted to gut our religious liberty," said Cruz.

Cruz is the first and so far the only person to officially declare his candidacy for the 2016 presidential campaign. In South Carolina, he was not shy about letting his supporters know where he stands on the IRS.

He told his supporters that he wants to reform the tax policy and abolish the IRS. Cruz condemned the potential nuclear deal with Iran. And he criticized his democratic colleagues.

"That they are unwilling to defend the first amendment. They are unwilling to defend the right of every Christian, every Jew, every American, to seek out and worship god and live according to the dictates of our faith," said Cruz.

Many voters in the packed room agreed with Cruz.

"State vs. federal rights. Certain rights as a state to regulate religion... to regulate marriage," said Glenn Kramar, who attended the event.

Others said they do not support the Texas senator's view, especially on immigration.

"Especially you know coming from Texas where the Bushes are from, they had a better understanding of the importance and the impact that immigrants have. You gotta work with them in the community. They bring in a lot of money. They pay a lot of taxes. They contribute a lot, but you just want to cut them completely off... that just astonishes me," said Alma Hernandez from Action NC.

Nobody else has officially announced that they will run in 2016. Several names like Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Rick Perry and on the democrat side, Hilary Clinton, have come up, but there's no official announcement yet on these potential candidates.

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