Last night, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins officially endorsed Ted Cruz for president during an interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly. Perkins’ endorsement was long expected, as he has worked behind the scenes to coalesce Religious Right leaders behind Cruz’s candidacy.
Perkins is just the latest anti-gay extremist to endorse Cruz, who in a press release hailed Perkins as “a man of incredible principle and faith” and “a steadfast fighter for the principles that have made this country a shining beacon for liberty.”
Before leading FRC, Perkins was a Republican politician in Louisiana who, as we noted back in December, “spoke at least twice to the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens and reportedly ‘paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,500 for his mailing list’ while working as the campaign manager for failed U.S. Senate candidate Woody Jenkins.”
Perkins has used his post at FRC to defend Uganda’s “kill-the-gays” bill and to call gay rights advocates pawns of Satan, warning that the gay rights movement is part of a “population control” conspiracy that will lead to a Holocaust of Christians, mass death and terrorism.
No fan of religious liberty, Perkins has denounced civil rights for Muslim-Americans and adherents of “fringe religions” and suggested that liberal Christians shouldn’t have the same rights as conservative ones.
Perkins’ extremism and holier-than-thou attitude, of course, makes him a perfect fit for Cruz’s campaign.
