Ted Cruz, Heidi Nelson Cruz

Heidi Suzanne Nelson Cruz is a white woman of Danish and Irish descent. Here are 13 more things about her:

1. She was born in San Luis Obispo, California, United States to dentist Peter Christian Nelson and dental hygienist Suzanne Jane Rouhe Nelson. (a) (b)
2. She was 4 years old when she started accompanying her missionary parents in Africa where they performed missions through the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (c) (d)
3. Both her paternal and maternal grandfathers were doctors. Her great-great-grandfather was a doctor and former president of Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, San Bernardino County, California. Her maternal grandfather lived in Africa where she served a mission and worked at a hospital in the former Belgian Congo. (b)
4. She was in grade school when she started a bread-baking venture with her brother Scott Nelson. When she was 6 years old, she was earning $150 a week. She later used the money to buy a car and pay off some of her first year of college. She was 12 years old when she read a Time magazine article about the U.S. presidential race between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale while working at her bread stand in San Luis Obispo. (b) (c)
5. She attended Valley View Adventist Academy in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County and Monterey Bay Academy in La Selva Beach, Santa Cruz County, California. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations degree from Claremont McKenna College. From 1994 to 1995, she attended Solvay Brussels School in Brussels, Belgium where she earned her master’s degree in European business. (b) (e)
6. From 1998 to 2000, she attended Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA where she earned her master’s degree in business administration. From 1999 to 2000, she served as an economic advisor for the George W. Bush–Dick Cheney campaign. In 2000, she met Ted Cruz in Austin, Texas, USA while they were working on Bush’s presidential campaign. She and Ted got married in May 2001. (c) (e) (f)
7. In 2003, she was appointed as the director for the Western Hemisphere on the National Security Council. She worked in Washington, D.C., USA and reported directly to Condoleezza Rice.
8. In 2004, she left Washington, D.C. and moved to Houston, Texas so Ted could pursue elective office in Texas. (d)
9. Suffering from depression, she was found sitting on the ground with her head in her hands near the MoPac Expressway in Austin by Austin Police Department officer Joel Davidson, who responded to a report from a passerby, on August 22, 2005. From 2005 to 2012, she was the vice president of Goldman, Sachs and Co. (d) (g)
10. She gave birth to Caroline Nelson Cruz in 2009 and to Catherine Nelson Cruz in 2011. (c)
11. In 2013, she became the managing director of Goldman, Sachs and Co. (e)
12. Ted assumed office as U.S. senator from Texas on January 3, 2013. He was reelected for a second term in 2018. When he ran for U.S. president in 2016, she took an unpaid leave of absence from Goldman, Sachs and Co. for the duration of his campaign. He placed second behind Donald Trump in the Republican primary. (c) (h)
13. She was 48 years old when she, Ted and their two daughters left Houston and went to Cancun, Mexico on  February 17, 2021. Ted went back to Houston on February 18, 2021 while she and their two daughters stayed in Cancun and went back to Houston on February 20, 2021. The family was criticized because during those days, up to 4.3 million Texas residents were left without power and millions of others without drinking water during a historic winter storm. (i)

SOURCES:

• a. California Birth Index
• b. The Fresno Bee
• c. USA Today
• d. BuzzFeed News
• e. Heidi Nelson Cruz
• f. The Atlantic
• g. Austin Police Department
• h. Office of the Secretary of State of Texas
• i. New York Post