Cruz at BJU: Gay marriage issue not settled
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz told a crowd of cheering evangelicals in Greenville on Saturday that the issue of gay marriage is not settled despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down state bans against the practice, including one voters had put into the South Carolina Constitution.
“This is not settled,” the Texas senator declared during a fiery speech at Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian school. “It’s not the law of the land. It’s not the Constitution. It’s not legitimate, and we will stand and fight.”
Cruz said the definition of marriage is “left to the states and left to the people” under the Tenth Amendment.
He reminded the audience that he had spoken out forcefully against the ruling at the time it was handed down in June and said it was “sad” to have heard other GOP White House hopefuls react by saying, “It’s settled. It’s the law of the land. We give up. Let’s move on.”
Cruz did not mention which of his rivals had allegedly said that, but his comments may have been aimed at Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is battling Cruz for third place in the latest polls of South Carolina Republicans.
Rubio said in a June statement responding to the ruling, “While I disagree with this decision, we live in a republic and must abide by the law.”
Rubio also said in the statement that he disagreed with the ruling and that the next president must nominate justices committed to applying the Constitution as originally understood.
The crowd on hand for Cruz’ “rally for religious liberty” was smaller than the one that had gathered in the same auditorium the day before to hear Ben Carson, another Republican presidential candidate with strong support from evangelicals.
But Cruz drew a lot more standing ovations.
One of them came as he shared his view that evangelicals could decide the outcome of next year’s presidential race if they vote in greater numbers than they did in 2012.
If just 10 million more evangelicals vote next November than did in the 2012 presidential election, Cruz said, Americans won’t have to stay up late waiting to hear the outcome of the race.
“They will call the election at 8:35 p.m., and we will change the direction of the country,” he declared, drawing a standing ovation.
“When we stand together the truth is mightier than the lies,” Cruz said. “The light is stronger than the darkness. And let me give you the fact that absolutely terrifies them: There are more of us than there are of them.”
His message resonated with Andy Cress, a 57-year-old computer programmer who drove up from Columbia to hear the senator in person for the first time.
“After having heard him, it would be almost impossible not to support him,” Cress said immediately following the rally. “He stands for everything we believe in.”
Still, Cress stopped short of saying he’d vote for Cruz over Carson, the other candidate he’s considering.
“I’m almost there,” Cress said about his decision on who to support for president. “I don’t make decisions like that lightly.”
The Cruz rally took place a little more than three months before South Carolina’s first-in-the-South Republican presidential primary on Feb. 20.
It included appearances from ordinary Americans telling stories of how their constitutional rights to religious liberty had been violated.
Those included a high school coach who was suspended for praying on the field after games and an Iowa husband and wife who were accused of discrimination and fined for refusing to accommodate a same-sex marriage at their wedding chapel business.
“These threats are real and they’re growing each and every day,” Cruz told the crowd.
A spokesperson for SC Equality, a gay rights group, said before the rally that it would have no comment on the Cruz event.
Also taking the stage were Cruz’ wife, Heidi Cruz, an investment banker who pointed out her parents were missionaries, and Cruz’ father, Rafael Cruz, a pastor who said he thought the gay-marriage ruling had awoken the evangelical vote.
Cruz’ messaging on religious liberty was interrupted by the terrorist attacks in Paris Friday night that turned the nation’s attention to questions of national security.
Responding to the news, Cruz opened the rally with a moment of silence and prayer for the victims.
He also told Fox News in an interview from Greenville that he’d fight the Islamic State terrorist group blamed for the violence by increasing the number of aerial bombardments on their positions in the Middle East and by arming the Kurds to serve as ground forces in the fight.
That position distinguishes him from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is also running for president and has said all year that U.S. ground troops would have to be deployed as part of a coalition with other nations if Islamic State is to be defeated.