Cruz and Trump: Two Paths to Evangelicals’ Hearts

Sen. Ted Cruz and real estate mogul Donald Trump are running neck-and-neck among Iowa’s all-important evangelical voters, but they are taking strikingly different paths, journalist Byron York said Monday.

York, chief political correspondent of the Washington Examiner, said on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that Cruz is taking a traditional approach — quoting the Bible and highlighting his deep Christian faith. Trump, meanwhile, is talking about bombing Middle East terrorists to smithereens. He added that Trump is drawing some evangelicals who are tired of voting based on their faith, only to see their favored candidate fall in subsequent primaries.

“Trump and Cruz are both making their appeals to those voters in completely different ways,” he said. “And the interesting thing is, they’re both doing pretty well with evangelicals.”

York said a dustup between outsiders Trump and Cruz over the Texas senator’s Canadian birth has the potential to benefit Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is trying to nail down the Establishment wing of the party.

York noted that Cruz so far mostly has refrained from attacking Trump. But Cruz, who was born in Canada but whose mother was an American citizen, has been forced to take time defending his eligibility. York noted that the question even came up at a campaign event in Iowa.

“I can’t imagine it was in Cruz’s game plan to be talking about this right now,” he said.

York said Trump has benefitted from highlighting former President Bill Clinton’s past of sexual impropriety. He said Hillary Clinton was a “major figure” in the effort to defend her husband from impeachment.

“His behavior, Bill Clinton’s behavior, pretty much contradicts everything Hillary Clinton is saying right now on the campaign trail about sex harassment and behavior in the workplace and all that kind of stuff,” York said.

York said the issue may be hurting Clinton in the Democratic race. He pointed to polls released over the weekend that raise doubts about the long-presumed coronation of the former secretary of state. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to hold a small lead in New Hampshire and is within the margin of error in Iowa, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

“Democrats are thinking to themselves, ‘Gee, what if Bernie wins Iowa and New Hampshire?’” he said.

The Clinton camp long has insisted that it has a “firewall” in South Carolina. York is not so sure.

“You can’t tell what’s going to happen if the front-runner loses Iowa and New Hampshire,” he said.