Ahead of his formal announcement at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz has made it publicly known that he wants to be the party's official candidate for president in 2016.

A few hours before his speech, just after midnight on Monday, he tweeted, "I am running for president and I hope to earn your support," quotes Sacramento Bee.

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While the 44-year-old elicited cheers on Sunday among fellow conservatives, the numbers says that he really needs an early start because Cruz, despite a stellar political career, is relatively unknown outside the world of politicians.

Citing all publicly available polls of adults across the U.S., Huffington Post reports that Cruz, besides being quite unknown, has a net unfavorable rating of 35.7 percent versus a favorable rating of 27.7 percent.

His 21-hour Senate speech in 2013 boosted his ratings among primary voters and gave him 15 to 20 percent among the Republican field, but since then, his star has been fading to between 3 and 9 percent, according to nine surveys made in 2015. Cruz was behind Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, Ben Carson, Rand Paul and Chris Christie.

And another bad news for Cruz, or whoever would be chosen as the GOP candidate, would still have a formidable opponent if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic primaries. The latest Economist/YouGov polls said that the email controversy failed to dent Clinton's popularity as presidential candidate.

Clinton's strength lies in her appeal to women voters, with the former secretary of state enjoying a 56 percent favorable opinion among females.

Besides Cruz, other Republicans expected to declare their candidacy to replace Barack Obama in the White House include Bush, Walker, Paul and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Cruz, in his tweet, said it would take a new generation of brave conservatives to help make America great again, and he vowed, "I'm ready to stand with you to lead the fight."

The only question is - how many American voters are ready to follow him?

TagsTed Cruz, US Presidential Election, Hillary Clinton, Republican Party