AMES, Iowa — Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Ted Cruz competed Saturday for the attention of Christian conservatives who will be a key voting bloc in the 2016 Iowa presidential caucuses.
Neither Texan has said he intends to seek the White House, but both have sent signals they are interested in running. Both Cruz and Perry were warmly received by nearly 1,000 evangelical voters gathered for the daylong Family Leadership Summit that showcased several other potential GOP nominees.
Cruz got a hero’s welcome, rousing people to their feet by touting his battles against both the Obama administration and the establishment wing of his own party. He said the way conservatives succeed is “not being namby-pamby, not giving in to the ways of Washington.”
“We need to stand for life, we need to stand for marriage, we need to abolish the IRS. We need to repeal Obamacare,” he said to thunderous applause.
Cruz seemed to take a veiled poke at Perry, whose 2012 presidential bid stalled after an “oops” moment when he couldn’t remember three federal agencies he pledged to abolish. Cruz enumerated seven things from memory that he called conservative victories.
Among them were efforts in Congress to beat back restrictions on gun rights, the Supreme Court ruling that Hobby Lobby could refuse to comply with federal insurance mandates under Obamacare about contraceptives, and his efforts to push the Republican House leadership to toughen last week’s bill dealing with the crisis at the border.
At one point, briefly mistaking which number he was on, Cruz joked, “I could say oops, but that would make news.”
In his appeal to Christian conservatives, Perry cited Scripture and invoked Jesus. He called the Obama administration’s foreign policy “a muddled mess.” And he touted economic success in Texas during his 13 years as governor.
His biggest applause line was about his decision to send 1,000 National Guard troops to the Texas border. Perry said he tried for two years to get President Barack Obama to do more to curb illegal immigration.
“The message to Washington is clear: If you will not secure the border of our country, then the state of Texas will,” Perry said.
Also addressing the summit Saturday were former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Sen. Rick Santorum and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Iowa’s caucuses mark the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest. In 2012, 57 percent of Republican Iowa caucusgoers were conservative evangelicals and born-again voters. Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, and Santorum won in 2012.
Follow Wayne Slater on Twitter at @wayneslater.
