Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum on Saturday night reiterated their opposition to allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Bachmann and Santorum – along with Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry – appeared at the nationally televised Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition's eleventh annual Fall Banquet and Presidential Candidates Forum in Des Moines, Iowa.

The group, part of Ralph E. Reed Jr.'s Faith and Freedom Coalition, describes itself as “a 21st century version of the Christian Coalition.” Reed has said his coalition is designed to act as a bridge between the tea party movement and evangelical voters.

Not taking part in the event was former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

In addressing the group, Bachmann repeated her emerging theme that social conservatives don't have to compromise on the 2012 GOP nominee, suggesting she's the most conservative of the field. Later, she reminded the crowd of her efforts as a Minnesota Senator to ban gay marriage in the state.

“In my home state of Minnesota when it was extremely unpopular, I introduced the bill to define marriage as one man and one woman. And we persisted. And even after I left Minnesota, I worked with my successors and now Minnesota will be the first state to have on its ballot the definition of marriage as one man and one woman in this upcoming year. And as president of the United States I would fully support the federal marriage amendment to define marriage as one man and one woman.”

Santorum once again took a swipe at his rivals – such as Texas Rep. Ron Paul – calling their positions against marriage equality too soft.

“You'll hear everybody up here say, well most everybody, say that they support traditional marriage and they support a constitutional amendment to ban … gay marriage. But you'll also hear, if you listen to the debates, people say that while they may support a constitutional amendment, they don't support getting involved in the states and doing something to make sure the states don't pass either through judicial fiat or through legislation marriage different than one man and one woman. And that is all the difference”

“There's been one vote on the floor of the United States Senate on the issue of the federal marriage amendment. And I forced it when I was there. There hasn't been one since. We lost, but we had the debate. We went for the right solution.”

“Yet, people up here who will tell you that they are for that. But will they push the debate. Will they have the vote. Will they take it to the American people. And one way you can tell how convicted they are, is will they go to the states and fight it where the fight is. I will. I did.”