http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/219056-cruz-eclipses-paul-with-conservatives-at-values-votersSeptember 26, 2014, 05:11 pm
Ted Cruz eclipses Rand Paul at conservative values summit
By Alexandra Jaffe and Cameron Joseph
It was Ted Cruz's party at the Values Voters Summit in Washington on Friday.
The Texas Republican senator began the event with a deeply religious and emotional speech, pacing the stage and speaking with the cadence of a preacher, repeatedly rallying the crowd to its feet and jumping into an eager throng of supporters after his address.
Crowds seemed far more skeptical of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who spoke just after Cruz. While they warmly welcomed Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), he responded with a lecturing speech that earned few applause lines.
Paul tried to make a case for how his libertarian ideals would mesh with their religious fervor. But his reception to the faithful was tepid, with many skeptical of his seemingly ambivalent comments on abortion earlier this year despite his focus on the issue during Friday's speech.
Two other potential 2016 presidential rivals have yet to take the stage — former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) — but Cruz has so far dominated an event whose straw poll he won handily a year ago.
It was Cruz who captured the group's attention as many presidential hopefuls made their last pitch to social conservatives before many of them will decide whether to seek the White House by early next year.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins praised all the potential candidates, but said Cruz got people excited because of his blunt style.
“At the heart what they are looking for is leaders who will say what they mean and mean what they say. They’re not looking for nuanced speeches. I think that’s why Ted Cruz gets such a strong reception — he just says it like it is. He doesn’t kind of shuck and jive, he says what he means," he told The Hill.
Cruz delivered a speech that veered from the emotional to the fiery, running from his family's own struggles when his father briefly left to the persecution of Christians abroad. He drew standing ovations when he called on the crowd to "vote Harry Reid out" and when he said when a Republican wins the White House in 2017, (drawing yells of "you, you" from the crowd), the party would repeal “every word of ObamaCare.”
Paul sought to merge his libertarian-leaning philosophy with social conservative beliefs on Friday, telling the religious crowd at the summit that the two go hand-in-hand and calling for a religious "revival" in the U.S.
"Where there is liberty there is always plenty of space for God," Paul concluded at the end of a speech at times punchy and professorial.
Paul drew applause when he said President Obama "acts like a king" and effectively worked the crowd's fury at oppression of Christians abroad, saying that until Asia Bibi, a Christian sitting in prison in Pakistan, "is freed, Pakistan should not receive a penny of U.S. aid."
But he avoided gay marriage, and while he sought to assure the social conservatives he was with them on abortion, the way he framed it leaves question marks for the movement, especially after comments this spring on Roe v. Wade that many read as ambivalent.
"The debate isn't really about whether government has a role in protecting life. The debate really hinges on when life begins," the ophthalmologist told the crowd. "Don't tell me that 5- and 6-pound babies have no rights simply because they're not yet born."
Perkins admitted that Paul isn't fully trusted by the movement, though he said it was clear Paul was looking to "bolster those credentials" on opposition to abortion with his opening video focused on the issue.
"His needle points more toward the libertarian viewpoint. There is a skepticism of libertarianism," he said.
Santorum, who placed second in the 2012 GOP presidential primary with the help of social conservatives, received standing ovations when he arrived and departed, but for much of his speech the room was dead silent, a stark contract to Cruz's reception.
The Pennsylvania former senator delivered a somber and hectoring speech focused on "existential threats" from the Middle East and a push to keep the GOP from abandoning social issues like gay marriage and abortion.
"Quit being scared and start being activists and making things happen in America," he said in one of the few lines of the speech that drew applause. "Do something."
Santorum received standing ovations at the beginning and end of his speech.
Perkins said Huckabee, who will speak later this evening, often gets the same type of response; the evangelical leader said the social conservative movement is “just looking for somebody who’s going to speak the truth and not make apologies for their conservative views.”
Cruz will need to eat into Huckabee's base if both run. The former Arkansas governor has led preliminary polls in early-voting Iowa, driven by his strong appeal to evangelical Christians in a state he won in 2008, while Cruz has lagged behind.
