Marco Rubio presidential campaign, 2016 declared he was running for president approximately three weeks after this fellow republican who has served  as the junior United States Senator from Texas since what year
Ted Cruz Rafael Edward Cruz ( ; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013. He was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election.
Texas caucuses The Texas caucuses are a political event associated with primaries, the process by which voters in the U.S. state of Texas ultimately select their parties' nominees for various offices. The process as a whole has been referred to as the Texas Two-step, after the partner dance of the same name, because Texans were required to first vote in the primary election in order to be eligible for participation in party caucuses in which delegates were selected.