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Ted Cruz Says Obama Won Because Evangelicals Stayed Home. Is That True?

Increasing white evangelical Protestant turnout might not be the cure-all he thinks.
US Senator Ted Cruz(R-TX) delivers remarks announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination to run for US president March 23, 2015, inside the Vine Center at Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia.

US Senator Ted Cruz(R-TX) delivers remarks announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination to run for US president March 23, 2015, inside the Vine Center at Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia.

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images
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Texas Senator Ted Cruz gave his audience at Liberty University on Monday one concrete-sounding reason why he could win the presidency. Too many evangelical Christians, he said, were “staying home” and handing presidential elections to Democrats. “Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values,” said Cruz, to one of many bursts of applause.

This isn't just one senator's theory. The fear that evangelical voters are staying home has captivated the right since at least 2008, when John McCain won nearly 2 million fewer votes than George W. Bush had in 2004. To social conservatives, it looked like the hard work that had increased evangelical turnout from 2000 to 2004 had been undone.