A spokesman for the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz said he’s a little confused by GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s remarks to an Iowa crowd this week that “not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba.”
“I’m a little confused by it — I’m not sure what it means,” spokesman Rick Tyler said on CNN this week. “Does it mean if you’re a Cuban you can’t be an evangelical or if you’re an evangelical you can’t be a Cuban? I can’t make any sense of it.
At a campaign event Tuesday in Iowa, Mr. Trump had said: “Just remember this — you gotta remember, in all fairness, to the best of my knowledge, not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba, OK?”
“He’s Cuban and he is an evangelical,” Mr. Tyler said of the Texas senator, in the clip flagged by Mediaite. “His father was saved by a Baptist minister and he became a Baptist and grew up in a Baptist church, so that’s how he became an evangelical.”
Mr. Cruz has about a 3-point lead on Mr. Trump in the state in the latest Real Clear Politics average.
Mr. Trump said this week he plans to start spending at least $2 million per week on ads in early states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Mr. Trump has double-digit leads over the rest of the 2016 GOP field in the latest RCP averages on New Hampshire and South Carolina.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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