Texas Senator Ted Cruz will become the first major U.S. presidential candidate in the 2016 race on Monday when he is expected to announce his candidacy. ABC News reports that some of those working with the Republican say the announcement will be made at the Lynchburg, Virginia Christian college of Liberty University. The news was first published by the Houston Chronicle.

Although Cruz, 44, is the first major Republican candidate, he is expected to have many competitors. Other likely candidates include U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush (son of former president George H.W. Bush and brother of former president George W. Bush), Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Although many candidates commit to a drawn out exploratory process prior to making a formal candidacy announcement, Cruz skipped this and will very shortly shift into full campaign mode.

With Cruz’s announcement, the 2016 presidential race will formally begin. Several candidates are expected to make their own announcements next month, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul.

Although the Texas senator did engage in a formal exploratory process, he nevertheless visited early primary states frequently over the last two years, clearly considering a presidential bid. Since 2012, Cruz has visited Iowa nine times and both South Carolina and New Hampshire five times.

Cruz’s political star rose just a couple years ago, in 2012, when the Tea Party candidate received the Republican nomination during the Texas Senate primary against establishment candidate Lt. Gov. Ted Dewhurst. Ted Cruz won the Senate seat in November of that year and is now in the third year of his six-year term. It is unknown if he will resign from his current job to focus on the crush of campaigning for what is arguably the most powerful position on Earth.

Cruz has been loud against President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare and immigration plans. He was the leader of a 21-hour Senate filibuster protesting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) only days before a forced shutdown of the U.S. Government.