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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) electrified conservatives at the Values Voters Summit in Washington on Friday as he laid out plans for his first day in the White House. Cruz vowed to rescind all of President Obama’s “illegal and unconstitutional executive actions," said he would order the Department of Justice to prosecute Planned Parenthood, instruct the DOJ and Internal Revenue Service to end religious persecution of citizens, “rip to shreds” the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran and move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Upon each declaration, Cruz received huge applause and a standing ovation. “That’s just day one,”...

Hard-charging radio commentator Mark Levin is sick of waiting for the Republican Party to nominate a conservative for president, and today he outlined his plan to accomplish just that. Speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, the talk radio giant and bestselling author issued a call to action to the crowd of social conservatives, prescribing a grassroots movement to elect a conservative to the White House in 2016. Levin lamented that Americans under age 50 haven’t yet had the chance to vote for a true conservative such as Ronald Reagan for president and called on conference attendees to spend...

I was watching Ted Cruz ar the Values Summit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvL4sV_oTlQ He was heckled several times by RINO/DNC plants inthe audience and handled them with class and even turned it around on the dummies.

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Thursday criticized comments in US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) made earlier this month i n a speech that critics have said was unnecessarily confrontational toward a Middle Eastern Christian group. "We have a responsibility to stand by people who are being persecuted," Santorum told Business Insider in a wide-ranging interview in New York. "This shouldn't be an ideological test — well, you have to agree with us on all of these things, or else we won't be with you. No, we're going to be with you if you are a religious minority that's...

Two potential presidential candidates come to a conservative Christian cattle call.Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, two Tea Party senators in the hunt for the White House, find themselves in a nearly identical position these days. Both sons of celebrated conservative leaders, they regularly speak at the same events, criticize the same Democratic President with a similar message of back-to-basics constitutionalism, and poll nationally at about 10% among Republicans in the way-too-early 2016 polls. But on Friday, as conservative Christians gathered in Washington for the Values Voter Summit, their differences were far more apparent than their similarities. Paul stood behind the...

It was Ted Cruz's party at the Values Voters Summit in Washington on Friday.The Texas Republican senator began the event with a deeply religious and emotional speech, pacing the stage and speaking with the cadence of a preacher, repeatedly rallying the crowd to its feet and jumping into an eager throng of supporters after his address. ADVERTISEMENT But Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal emerged as a surprising star of the conference with an alternately fiery and funny address to the crowd Friday evening, which brought them to their feet for a standing ovation with his closing declaration that “we are ready...

Rand Paul talked foreign policy. Rick Santorum decried flagging family values. Michele Bachmann called for war on radical Islam. But it was Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas who captivated the crowd of social conservatives in Washington Friday, again showcasing his appeal with that critical part of the GOP should he run in 2016. The Values Voter conference offered an early glimpse of what’s sure to be a spirited battle for the allegiance of Christian conservatives in 2016. In a half-hour speech, the Lone Star State Republican quoted “Amazing Grace” and cited Psalms; Cruz shared a personal story about how his...

HOUSTON, Texas -- Speaking at the  Values Voters Summit, put on by the Family Research Council, Texas Senator Ted Cruz gave a passionate speech about religious liberty and faith. Invoking personal stories from his own life, the senator highlighted the power of hope in the darkest of times.  "Our values are fundamentally American," Cruz told the audience. "This country remains a country built on...Christian values. And anyone who tells you differently is lying to you."Cruz spoke about his own father, whose life was drastically changed by the power of faith. Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, was taken captive in Cuba as a teenager. He was wearing a...

Sacred underwear, baptizing holocaust victims, gods of their own planets. When some of America’s most celebrated pundits and public intellectuals talk about Mormons, these are the images that are summoned. Ironically in this “Mormon Moment”—signaled by a hit Broadway musical, polygamous housewives on TLC, and of course two Mormon presidential candidates—Mormons, long considered quintessential “outsiders” to mainstream American culture, today find themselves at the center of the American zeitgeist. Yet it is the Mormons’ supposed theological weirdness that is the centripetal attraction. As Joanna Brooks has noted in these pages, the New York Times recently featured Harold Bloom’s musings on...

I was debating whether or not to blog about this. I like Family Research Council and never really had an issue with Tony Perkins, but his statement reported by Ben Smith of Politico about Governor Sarah Palin after the Voter Values Summit ticked me off and I decided he needs a moment behind the woodshed.

Mike Pence takes top spot in Values Voter Summit straw poll By Felicia Sonmez Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) took the top spot Saturday in a presidential straw poll of social conservatives meeting in Washington, a surprise victory over last year's overwhelming favorite, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Pence placed first with 24 percent in the straw poll of 723 social conservatives at the Family Research Council's fifth annual Values Voter Summit. Huckabee took second place with 22 percent, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney came in third with 13 percent and former House speaker Newt Gingrich took fourth with 10 percent....

The Value Voters Summit is underway in Washington this weekend, and many political animals are looking forward to the straw poll which will be taken Saturday at the conference. While it's just a straw poll, and the 2012 presidential race is still pretty far down the campaign trail, some pundits think they will be able to read something significant in the tea leaves. One of those is Bernie Quigley of The Hill's Pundits Blog: It should be useful in cutting through the ambiguity and denial about the various grassroots movements around the country. In a poll six months ago, Palin...

FRC’s Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Center Action, just completed a conference call with reporters. What stood out to me were his comments on Rudy: “Yes, there will be some evangelicals who vote for him. In my experience, it’s about half and half. … In the eyes of many social conservatives, there’s little distinction between [Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani]. Clearly there’s some distinction, they’re not identical. But when you consider those who have come into the political process on ideological path or issues path, not a party path… These are people who are not there to advance a...