Cruz, Huckabee Go Head-To-Head For Evangelical Votes

Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee are going head-to-head for evangelical votes.

The two men shared a stage Sunday at the Rock Springs Church in Milner, Georgia, where they told hundreds of members that the United States is favored by God and that the nation is on a perilous spiritual path. Both men cited the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage as proof.

Christian conservatives are an important bloc of the GOP’s presidential electorate. They have long held considerable influence in Iowa, which hosts the first caucus of the primary season, and in South Carolina, home of the South’s first primary a few weeks later.

But several other Southern states, including Georgia, are now getting more attention from Republican hopefuls because of the so-called “SEC primary” set for March 1, 2016.