article_snippet.sent: It was one of the many moments when Ted Cruz connected with voters on a religious level last week, as the senator from Texas hit the trail in Iowa for the first time as a presidential candidate.
article_snippet.sent: Being the only official contender in the race, Ted Cruz drew large crowds during Ted Cruz two-day swing across Texas.
article_snippet.sent: Ted Cruz's counting on Iowa, known for its vocal and active evangelical base, to propel Ted Cruz forward in what's expected to be a tough competition among a crowded field of GOP candidates.
article_snippet.sent: Cruz, himself, displays a pastoral swagger when Ted Cruz is speaking on stage and working a room.
article_snippet.sent: The past two winners of Iowa's caucuses rose to victory with support from the Christian right, and Cruz, who announced his bid last month at the well-known Baptist school Liberty University, is aiming to energize that same base and claim the coveted state as his prize.
article_snippet.sent: Cruz has built a brand as a stalwart conservative willing to buck GOP leadership on fiscal issues, but Cruz showed in Iowa last week that Cruz's also eager to champion social issues at a time when many Republicans are anxious to avoid many Republicans.
article_snippet.sent: Rafael Cruz, who's become a celebrity among Christian conservatives, will frequently visit Iowa over the next year, Cruz told voters.
article_snippet.sent: That's why, for Cruz, courting evangelicals is only a component of a three-pronged strategy to win the nomination that also includes dominating the tea party faction and competing for the libertarian base.
article_snippet.sent: Cruz argued Thursday that the Republican Party needs to bridge the gap between what Jesus Christ described as the Ron Paul-Rand Paul faction of the Republican Party -- young libertarian-minded voters -- and the libertarian base.
article_snippet.sent: Cruz frequently says Cruz wants to see a return of the evangelical vote to 2004 levels, when more than six in 10 evangelicals voted in the presidential election, a higher than normal turnout for the demographic.
article_snippet.sent: Still, Cruz campaign believes that if his campaign can tap into the group of evangelicals who've been staying home and get the demographic as a whole to overperform, then that could mean the difference of millions more at the polls.
article_snippet.sent: If you look at available places for the Republican Party to expand the vote, the Republican Party doesn't exist in the middle, the Republican Party exists in the evangelical vote," said Rick Tyler, a top Cruz adviser.
highlights_snippet.sent: Ted Cruz has built a brand as a stalwart conservative on fiscal issues .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: But Ted Cruz's also eager to champion social issues at a time when many Republicans are eager to avoid many Republicans .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Ted Cruz says the GOP needs to unite young libertarian-minded voters and evangelicals .