Rubio peppers usual stump speech with religion in stop at Christian college

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa—With two weeks left before the Iowa caucus finally brings the 2016 presidential race to the voters, Republican candidate Marco Rubio opened up about his faith in front of nearly 600 people Saturday at a Christian college in northwest Iowa.

The attendees braved an arctic blast that plunged temperatures below zero on the Dordt College campus in Sioux Center, Iowa. But caucus-goers, proud of their first-in-the-nation status when it comes to the race for the White House, rarely let the risk of frostbite get in the way of glad-handing politicians with presidential aspirations.

Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, has not made many direct appeals to Christians during his trips to Iowa, especially compared to some of his rivals for the GOP nomination, including fellow U.S. senator Ted Cruz of Texas. But this time Rubio wove references to his own faith and the battle for religious freedom into his normal stump speech’s focus on issues like immigration and foreign policy.

“We need to pass on to our children the values that we are learning in our churches,” Rubio said, to cheers from the audience.

Sioux Center, a town of roughly 7,000, has 19 churches scattered throughout its rural community. Four years ago when former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., won the state’s Republican presidential caucus, he enjoyed a 644-vote advantage in Sioux County. Santorum spent that campaign being open about his faith, so Rubio, unsurprisingly, followed suit for this trip to the county.

Rubio emphasized his pro-life position, stressed the importance of families, and railed against the coarsening of America’s culture. He also noted religious freedom has been under attack during President Barack Obama’s tenure.

“Religious liberty is not just the right to believe what you want,” Rubio said. “Religious liberty is the right to live out your faith in every aspect of life.”

During his town hall at Dordt, a college with a student body of 1,500, Rubio continued to highlight his religious beliefs during the question and answer session. When a woman in the audience asked how he would keep his pride in check as president, Rubio jokingly pointed to his wife: “Her name is Jeannette.”

“I realize that I am a mere mortal and a sinner, and I always have to remember that,” he added.

Rubio currently is running third in Iowa polls among the dozen candidates vying for the Republican nomination. While Donald Trump leads in national polls, it is Cruz, the most upfront about his religious faith, who stands first in recent caucus polls.

Dordt College students made up more than 100 of the event’s participants. Micah Tjeerdsma, a sophomore engineering student from Sioux Falls, S.D., said he appreciated how Rubio talked so openly about his religious beliefs.

“I hope that he actually lives that out while he is in office,” he said.

But Brad Weber, another sophomore engineering major, noted talking about faith was easy on a Christian college campus.

“But he is not as verbal about it in his debates,” he said.

Weber, from Chanhassen Minn., added he is uncomfortable with the way Rubio talks about foreign policy: “He seems to go for the more strong man approach.”

Rubio talked at length about the terrorist group ISIS, promising a “real war on terror” if he is elected. The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio also called for a more efficient way to check the legal status of potential employees, a border fence, and 20,000 new border agents.

Before the Iowa caucus on Feb. 1, Dordt College will host at least one more Republican candidate. Trump will try to woo students on Saturday. The announcement of his speech met with mixed response from the campus community. At least one student walked around campus last week wearing a homemade sign protesting the event.

Erik Hoekstra, Dordt’s president, penned an open letter to the Dordt community in response to the concern brewing about Trump’s visit. In this letter, Hoekstra called the event an educational opportunity.

“Our goal is to have Dordt students graduate with a commitment to be politically active and biblically obedient, which I believe can only be helped by having first-hand access to candidates,” Hoekstra wrote.

The controversy highlights the trouble Trump may face among Iowa’s religious voters. Dordt’s Political Science Department has invited all candidates from both parties to visit the campus.