Pastor Rafael Cruz, the father of Ted Cruz, is touring Iowa to help encourage conservative Christians to vote for his son.
“If the righteous are not running for office and not even voting, what is left?” he asked during Sunday morning service at Grace Baptist Church in Iowa. “The wicked electing the wicked. And we get what we deserve.”
Polling has shown that Cruz has pulled close to frontrunner Donald Trump since Rafael has joined the campaign.
Rafael is a Texas pastor and has been criticized for some of his comments: He once compared President Obama to Fidel Castro and said he should be sent “back to Kenya.”
“If they don’t agree, they don’t agree,” Rafael told the Boston Globe. “But my son is trying to be president to all Americans.”
Rafael is visiting two to four churches a day, according to The Boston Globe.
Rafael was born in Cuba and fled to America in 1957 on a student visa. He studied at the University of Texas at Austin and years later moved to Canada, where son Ted Cruz was born.
Rafael abandoned his family and came back to Texas, but he later became a Christian and brought his family back to the United States.
“Rafael is an amazing closer,” said Bryan English, Cruz’s Iowa state director and a former pastor. “Too many politicians over the years come in, wave a Bible, quote a couple of verses, and think they’re a part of our movement. We’ve been burned.”
Publication date: January 28, 2016
