Republican Presidential Candidates Talk Faith At Plano Church
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PLANO (CBS 11) — Six of the top Republican presidential candidates, minus front-runner Donald Trump, spoke at the North Texas Presidential Forum at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano Sunday.
Close to 7,000 people filled the pews. In many ways the candidates — former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — were preaching to the choir.
Each candidate shared the importance of their Christian faith with the crowd of mainly evangelical Christians.
#NTXforum Ted Cruz: "I want to talk about the threats to religious liberties that we are seeing today."
— Brian New (@BrianNewCBS) October 18, 2015
"Obviously, it is a friendly audience but these questions need to be asked," said attendee and Prestonwood Church member Maria Bower. "Prestonwood is saying, as Christians, who is caring about what we believe in as Christians."
#NTXforum To the applause of the crowd at Prestonwood Baptist Church, Sen Rick Santorum said, "I'm an evangelical Catholic."
— Brian New (@BrianNewCBS) October 18, 2015
While the four-hour forum wasn't all about faith, it did dominate the discussion.
#NTXForum Dr. Carson: "We need to remind people that we have a Judeo-Christian foundation." pic.twitter.com/HEMM0zk5cE
— Brian New (@BrianNewCBS) October 18, 2015
Each candidate was given 10 minutes to speak and then a 10-minute interview with Prestonwood Pastor Jack Graham.
"Everyone was invited, but we believe that the right people are in the room today (Sunday)," Graham told the audience.
#NTXforum Carly Fiorina: "I think we need more prayer in public life - not less." Much of the Q&A about her faith. pic.twitter.com/4UQ3o7AnHh
— Brian New (@BrianNewCBS) October 18, 2015
Organizers said Trump along with the Democratic candidates declined the church's invitation.
During the four-hour forum, Cruz was the only candidate to mention Trump by name — and only briefly.
#NTXforum Huckabee said he's not here to fight other republican candidates. pic.twitter.com/mlGwstDduO
— Brian New (@BrianNewCBS) October 18, 2015
Perhaps the biggest jab at the republican front-runner came from Pastor Graham when he said during his interview with Jeb Bush, "George W. Bush did keep us safe, no matter what anybody says. You should be held accountable for ridiculous statements."
#NTXForum @JebBush "As a conservative we have to be just as caring for people in poverty." pic.twitter.com/hM5CDLnH0l
— Brian New (@BrianNewCBS) October 18, 2015
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