Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual forum was held this weekend in Waukee, Iowa, in which nine of the prospective Republican presidential nominees paraded across the stage in hopes of wooing the all-critical evangelical vote ahead of the Iowa Caucuses early next year.
Dropping buzz-words and money-lines were current and former Govs. Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, and Mike Huckabee along with Sens. Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Rick Santorum along with former U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina.
Though candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Ben Carson and Lindsey Graham were not in attendance, all four either sent surrogates or delivered a video address to the packed crowd of 1,000 at Point of Grace Church.
The addresses spanned an expected array of social issues that included hardline rhetoric on abortion, gay marriage, religious liberty, and Israel. The much-coveted evangelical vote in the Iowa Caucuses rarely chooses the ultimate nominee historically, but it has served as a sifter of sorts between candidates who go on to compete in the later primaries and those who do not.
