--- title: 2016 Election: Tony Perkins Endorses Ted Cruz for President description: Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, endorsed Senator Ted Cruz for President on the Megyn Kelly show Tuesday night. canonical: https://time.com/4195258/tony-perkins-ted-cruz-endorsement/ author: Elizabeth Dias article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-27T02:48:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:39.723Z article:section: Politics og:title: Tony Perkins Endorses Ted Cruz for President og:description: “He is smart, he is bold, much like you, he is not afraid to upset people to do the right thing” og:url: https://time.com/4195258/tony-perkins-ted-cruz-endorsement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0fa87d5cdc584c9/69887aa8e20a874018a8f39c/ap_598065873217.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4256 og:image:height: 2394 og:image:alt: Tony Perkins Values Voter Summit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tony Perkins Endorses Ted Cruz for President twitter:description: “He is smart, he is bold, much like you, he is not afraid to upset people to do the right thing” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0fa87d5cdc584c9/69887aa8e20a874018a8f39c/ap_598065873217.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Tony Perkins Endorses Ted Cruz for President > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=e544b69f-4ee4-4c07-ac4d-e6eb399c41d3&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Elizabeth Dias](https://time.com/author/elizabeth-dias/) ## Elizabeth Dias Jan 27, 2016 2:48 AM UTC  Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, speaks at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit in Washington on Oct. 7, 2011. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, speaks at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit in Washington on Oct. 7, 2011. Bill Clark—CQ Roll Call/AP by [Elizabeth Dias](https://time.com/author/elizabeth-dias/) ## Elizabeth Dias Jan 27, 2016 2:48 AM UTC Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, endorsed Senator Ted Cruz for President on the Megyn Kelly show Tuesday night. “I have many friends in this race, but I believe the one who is best positioned, best prepared to lead this nation forward, pulling it out of the tailspin this President has put us in, I believe it is Ted Cruz,” Perkins told Kelly, clarifying that he made the endorsement in his personal capacity. “He is smart, he is bold, much like you, he is not afraid to upset people to do the right thing.” Perkins’ endorsement does not come as a surprise, but its timing is a clear move to offset the momentum Trump is gaining in the lead up to the Iowa Caucuses on Monday. Trump gained the endorsement of another prominent evangelical leader, Jerry Falwell Jr., president of the Liberty University, earlier on Tuesday. Perkins’ announcement on Kelly’s show is also pointed, as it comes just hours after Trump announced that he will skip the upcoming Fox News/Google debate, in protest of the network — and Kelly specifically. Perkins specified that the next President’s potential appointment of two or even three Supreme Court Justices was foremost on his mind as he made his endorsement. “This is about his standing on conservative principles, it is about his standing on the Constitution, not his standing in the polls or his standing with his colleagues,” Perkins said. Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, has been leading with the values voters constituency, even though he does not always share their policy objectives. Asked last week what he makes of that dynamic, Perkins told TIME he believed that many evangelicals feel “beaten down” by [political correctness](http://time.com/4139981/trump-muslim-immigration-south-carolina/), especially on issues such as gay marriage. “Now they see Donald Trump, who is taking on that same elitist politically correct mindset and not backing down,” he [said](http://time.com/4189587/donald-trump-christian-conservatives/). “They find common cause in this guy, even though he comes from a completely different world.” But Trump, Perkins explained to TIME, was capitalizing primarily on fear. “You can’t operate in faith and fear, you have to choose one or the other,” Perkins told TIME last week. “We are not looking for a man to solve all our nation’s problems, we are looking for a man who knows the source of the solutions, and be wiling to stand and speak those solutions and advocate them.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4195258/tony-perkins-ted-cruz-endorsement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4195258/tony-perkins-ted-cruz-endorsement/"},"headline":"Tony Perkins Endorses Ted Cruz for President","datePublished":"2016-01-27T02:48:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:39.723Z","description":"“He is smart, he is bold, much like you, he is not afraid to upset people to do the right thing”","url":"https://time.com/4195258/tony-perkins-ted-cruz-endorsement/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0fa87d5cdc584c9/69887aa8e20a874018a8f39c/ap_598065873217.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elizabeth Dias","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/elizabeth-dias/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0fa87d5cdc584c9/69887aa8e20a874018a8f39c/ap_598065873217.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Tony Perkins Values Voter Summit","caption":"Tony Perkins Values Voter Summit","creditText":"Bill Clark—CQ Roll Call/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4195258/tony-perkins-ted-cruz-endorsement/","name":"Tony Perkins Endorses Ted Cruz for President"}}]}] ```