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Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday began his campaign for the White House with a call to abolish the 2010 health law and the Internal Revenue Service, an appeal for greater school choice and a proposition to his party: that Republicans can win the White House only if they nominate a forceful conservative like himself. The Texan, who became the first major candidate of either party to enter the 2016 race, laid out an argument here that Republicans have failed in presidential elections because their nominees were insufficiently conservative, leaving evangelical Christians and others on the political right to sit out the vote and hand victory to the Democrats. (Epstein and Ballhaus, 3/23)

In remarks with a heavy focus on his faith, Cruz won applause from thousands of the evangelical university's students for assailing the president's health care policy and immigration actions. (Dann, 3/23)

Cruz spoke on the fifth anniversary of Obama's health care law -- legislation that prompted Cruz to stand for more than 21 hours in the Senate to denounce it in a marathon speech that delighted his Tea Party constituency and other foes of the law. Cheers rose in the hall when Cruz reminded the crowd Monday that Liberty University filed a suit against the law right after its enactment. (3/23)