Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz plans Friday visit to Rock Hill

The first candidate to throw his hat into the 2016 Republican presidential primary race is about to make his first appearance in Rock Hill.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is scheduled to hold a town hall in Rock Hill on Friday at the Holiday Inn, 503 Galleria Boulevard. The event will be open to the public, beginning at 11 a.m.

While there is no charge for admission to the event, the York County Republican Party asks anyone who plans to attend to RSVP because of limited seating. Seats will be allocated on a first-come basis. Reservations can be made at www.yorkrepublicans.com/tedcruz.

Cruz’s visit to Rock Hill comes one week after he announced plans at Liberty University in Virginia to seek the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2016. South Carolina will be one of the first states in the nation to hold its presidential primary early next year, and, as the first Republican primary held in the South, is expected to influence the direction of the country’s conservative vote.

The junior senator from Texas, Cruz was first elected in 2012 and has become a favorite of the tea party wing during his time in the Senate. He was one of the main players in the 2013 government shutdown, as he called on Republicans in Congress to refuse to pass a spending measure that included any funding for President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.

This story was originally published March 30, 2015 at 11:13 PM with the headline "Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz plans Friday visit to Rock Hill."