Texas Senator Ted Cruz on Saturday won
by a wide margin a 2016 presidential straw poll conducted at Values
Voter Summit, the three-day convention organized by the political arm
of the Christian conservative Family Research Council (FRC).
According to The
Washington Post, 42 percent of attendees picked Cruz
to be the next Republican nominee for president. Ben Carson, a
pediatric neurosurgeon at John Hopkins University and a Fox News
contributor, edged out former Pennsylvania senator and 2012
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum by one vote to come
in second place with 13 percent of the vote. Republican Senators
Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida came in a distant
fourth and fifth, with six and five percent of the vote,
respectively.
“The Values Voter straw poll reveals
what conservative, Republican-leaning voters are looking for in a
potential candidate,” FRC President Tony Perkins said in releasing
the poll's results. “Values voters are looking for those who will
refuse to be bound by the 'can't mentality' of the establishment and
will challenge the status quo. In short, values voters, many of whom
did not fully engage in the last election, are looking for a leader
that will inspire them by challenging President Obama and speak
clearly and directly to the challenges facing America.”
Cruz, a leading opponent of the
Affordable Care Act, was interrupted by hecklers several times while
delivering his speech on Friday, in which he continued to urge House
Republicans to “stand strong” against the “nightmare that is
ObamaCare.”
“It seems Obama's paid political
operatives are out in force today,” he told the crowd after one of
the interruptions.
While opposition to the health-care law
was a central theme at this year's confab, many speakers also railed
against increasing support for gay rights, including social
conservatives Star Parker, who
said gay people should “keep it private,” Sandy Rios, who
claimed that gay men and lesbians are caught “in a web of deceit
that is breaking hearts,” and Brian Brown, who said during a
panel on marriage that allowing
gay couples to marry deconstructs “what it means to be human.”
Other speakers who touched on gay
rights included Rick Santorum, who
hinted at a 2016 presidential run, Mike Huckabee, a former
governor and a Fox News host, and Jim DeMint, a former senator and
the current president of The Heritage Foundation.