Posted on 08/25/2015 7:23:29 AM PDT by Isara
ANDERSON, South Carolina — Three presidential candidates came to Rep. Jeff Duncan’s Faith and Freedom BBQ here in South Carolina’s northwest corner on Monday, but only Sen. Ted Cruz brought a crowd with him.
Cruz, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker were the three featured speakers at the conservative congressman’s annual cattle call, and there were supporters here backing each of the candidates. But most of the estimated 2,000 people seated around tables at the Anderson Civic Center came for Cruz, easily identifiable by the red “courageous conservative” shirts they wore.
Winning the Feb. 27 primary in South Carolina, where Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have built strong organizations, would be a coup for the brash Texas senator. “South Carolina’s role is to ensure that the next Republican nominee is a real and consistent conservative,” Cruz told the crowd.
Cruz’s emerging strategy focuses heavily on dominating southern states and winning the March 1 contests known as the “SEC primary,” and he has been assiduously courting religious voters in particular. His appearance at the barbecue, billed as “South Carolina’s largest annual gathering of conservatives,” was by all indicators a smash success: Fans repeatedly swarmed the senator as he made his way around the space, shaking hands and taking pictures, and he had the most applause lines of the night. Dozens of Cruz volunteers with clipboards were on hand to sign up attendees.
The arena was a rare Trump-free zone, where the candidates sought to distinguish themselves in terms that would appeal to the deeply conservative crowd. (Anderson County, which surrounds the historic downtown, voted 67-31 percent for Mitt Romney in 2012.)
Cruz offered plenty of red meat, promising to crack down on Planned Parenthood and alleged discrimination against people of faith. His voice rising, he vowed that on his first day in office, he would “instruct the Department of Justice and the IRS and every other federal agency that the persecution of religious liberty ends today!” That sparked loud and long applause.
“That means every serviceman and woman is free to pray and worship God almighty with his heart, mind and soul and his commanding officer has nothing to say about it!” Cruz continued, his voice staying at that higher octave. “That means the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic charity that’s being persecuted, will find that the case against them is being dismissed.”
His opponents largely stuck to their stump speeches. Walker touted his record of cracking down on unions and defunding Planned Parenthood, pushing so-called religious liberty laws, and — in his biggest applause line — implementing a photo ID requirement to vote. Carson attacked the Obama administration for the rise of the Islamic State and for fomenting “a war on women, racial wars, income wars, age wars, religious wars” to divide the American electorate.
All three candidates earned a warm welcome — underscoring the difficulties Cruz, or a rival like former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, will face in consolidating the conservative Christian vote. The challenge was not lost on Cruz, who noted the rightward tilt of the first Republican presidential debate.
“Nobody on that stage in Cleveland stood there and said, ‘I’m a squishy establishment moderate,’” he said.
Religious leaders in the state listed Cruz, Huckabee, Carson, Walker and even Rubio as their preferred candidates, but most said they hadn’t made up their minds.
Rev. Brad Atkins, a prominent Baptist preacher here, ticked off his list, which he said was in no particular order: “Mike Huckabee, who is a very strong, biblical-based individual; Ted Cruz, who also is very strong on biblical values; Scott Walker, and I do have a few problems with Walker but he’s a good man and has reflected leadership based on biblical values; Marco Rubio, which I’m not really high on but he’s attractive to a lot of the Christian community because he also espouses some pretty solid biblical values,” Atkins said. He also mentioned Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal.
But leaders here caution that the religious community in South Carolina isn’t likely to unite around a single candidate anytime soon.
“Right now, I would have to say it’s multiple candidates,” said Dr. Tony Beam, a prominent Christian radio host and pastor who listed Cruz, Walker, Carson and Huckabee as the candidates with the most appeal among evangelicals. “I don’t think there’s a coalescing behind anybody.”
Even Donald Trump has the support of some religious voters in the state, Beam said.
“I’ve had them call my show and I’ve actually said, ‘OK, explain to me the connection, evangelically speaking, with Donald Trump. You say that you’re a Christian, you’re voting your values as it relates to Christian values. How does that square with Donald Trump?’” Beam said. “And quite honestly, the answer they give me is that ‘I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense right now, I’m just mad.’”
Being out of town I was unable to attend. My friend said there were 1700 people cheering. Must also remember South Carolina went for Gingrich in the primary. The Upstate is fed up with the establishment.
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