Christian Conservatives to Meet Cruz and Rand Paul

A group of longtime Christian conservative activists are holding a private meeting Thursday in Washington to hear informal presentations from two of the most talked-about potential Republican presidential candidates: Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

“This is not a fundraiser, nor an endorsement of U.S. Senator Rand Paul or U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, just a great opportunity for you to get to know them and discuss your ideas and views with them and hear of their lives, faith, and respective vision for our nation,” wrote Robert Fischer, a South Dakota-based conservative organizer, in an emailed invitation to dozens of evangelical Christian leaders.

The gathering is being held in conjunction with the Family Research Council’s Values Voters conference, an annual gathering of Christian conservatives in Washington, but it is not an official part of that event. Rather, it is being staged by a loosely-organized group of Republican leaders that call themselves “Conservatives of Faith.”

The hosts include Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, the former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, the conservative talk show host Janet Parshall and Richard Viguerie, the direct mail pioneer, along with a handful of others from the conservative movement. Mr. Fischer is the group’s chief organizer.

The same group met in the midst of the last two Republican presidential nominating fights. But after Republicans failed to nominate a Christian conservative in either race, many of the activists concluded they must begin to discuss potential candidates well before the next campaign begins.

Mr. Cruz and Mr. Paul will each bring their wives to the gathering, to be held in a hotel meeting room, a move that the organizers believe will better allow them to assess the values of the would-be candidates.

“Our hope in pulling together this meeting of the Conservatives of Faith is to listen, really listen to what these leaders have to say,” Ms. Parshall wrote in a note appended to the emailed invitation. “Our hope is to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere that allows the leaders and their wives to open up and really share with us what they believe. Far from the tally lights of the camera and the scratchy notepad of a reporter, these leaders will share their worldview on a wide variety of crucial issues.”

Unlike former Senator Rick Santorum, whom many of these activists rallied to in last year’s Republican nominating fight, neither Mr. Cruz nor Mr. Paul have longstanding relationships with Christian conservative leaders. Both, though, have assiduously courted evangelicals, both in their home states and more recently in Iowa this summer. The two senators will each address the Values Voter summit on Friday.

Christian Conservatives to Meet Cruz and Rand Paul

A group of longtime Christian conservative activists are holding a private meeting Thursday in Washington to hear informal presentations from two of the most talked-about potential Republican presidential candidates: Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

“This is not a fundraiser, nor an endorsement of U.S. Senator Rand Paul or U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, just a great opportunity for you to get to know them and discuss your ideas and views with them and hear of their lives, faith, and respective vision for our nation,” wrote Robert Fischer, a South Dakota-based conservative organizer, in an emailed invitation to dozens of evangelical Christian leaders.

The gathering is being held in conjunction with the Family Research Council’s Values Voters conference, an annual gathering of Christian conservatives in Washington, but it is not an official part of that event. Rather, it is being staged by a loosely-organized group of Republican leaders that call themselves “Conservatives of Faith.”

The hosts include Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, the former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, the conservative talk show host Janet Parshall and Richard Viguerie, the direct mail pioneer, along with a handful of others from the conservative movement. Mr. Fischer is the group’s chief organizer.

The same group met in the midst of the last two Republican presidential nominating fights. But after Republicans failed to nominate a Christian conservative in either race, many of the activists concluded they must begin to discuss potential candidates well before the next campaign begins.

Mr. Cruz and Mr. Paul will each bring their wives to the gathering, to be held in a hotel meeting room, a move that the organizers believe will better allow them to assess the values of the would-be candidates.

“Our hope in pulling together this meeting of the Conservatives of Faith is to listen, really listen to what these leaders have to say,” Ms. Parshall wrote in a note appended to the emailed invitation. “Our hope is to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere that allows the leaders and their wives to open up and really share with us what they believe. Far from the tally lights of the camera and the scratchy notepad of a reporter, these leaders will share their worldview on a wide variety of crucial issues.”

Unlike former Senator Rick Santorum, whom many of these activists rallied to in last year’s Republican nominating fight, neither Mr. Cruz nor Mr. Paul have longstanding relationships with Christian conservative leaders. Both, though, have assiduously courted evangelicals, both in their home states and more recently in Iowa this summer. The two senators will each address the Values Voter summit on Friday.