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Republican Presidential Hopefuls Court Religious Vote

Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio made his first appearance in Iowa after officially announcing he's running for his party's nomination. He was one of nine Republican Presidential hopefuls who spoke at a church in Waukee, a suburb of Des Moines, on Saturday evening. 

Rubio is one of three Republicans who have officially thrown their hat in the ring. The presidential hopefuls talked a lot about foreign policy and social issues at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Forum. Senator Marco Rubio says the single greatest contributor to poverty in America is the disintegration of families. 

“We should never have any policies that stand in the way of marriage and in this whole debate about the definition of marriage I remind everyone that marriage as an institution existed before government itself," Rubio says. "The institution of marriage between one man and woman existed before our laws existed.”

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told the crowd Iowans need to rally around a better Republican candidate this time around. 

“I’ve got a news flash," Paul says. "We lost Iowa the last two times and we’ve got to do something different. If you run Democrat-lite nothing changes, but you also aren’t going to win.”

04262015_RandPaul_FaithFreedomSummit.mp3
Listen to Rand Paul’s speech from the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Summit

Paul says countries that persecute Christians should not receive any financial support from the United States.

The five-hour event also featured appearances by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, former Texas Governor Rick Perry and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. 

04262015_TedCruz_FaithFreedomSummit.mp3
Listen to Ted Cruz’s speech from the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Summit

Clay Masters is the senior politics reporter for MPR News.