In Iowa yesterday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz came out with strong words of support for Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s new religious freedom law, which is widely considered to be discriminatory against homosexuals.

“Religious liberty is not some fringe view. It is the basis of this country,” said Cruz during a visit to Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa.

The law in question, the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, gives increased protections to businesses, allowing them to object to providing certain services to customers on religious grounds.

Since his declaration to run for president in 2016, Cruz has been striving to set himself apart from the many other Republican potential candidates. In this vain, he has been keen to portray himself as a die-hard conservative committed to ‘traditional’ American values. In the evangelical northwest corner of Iowa, Cruz told attentive audiences that he alone would be able to bring reluctant conservative voters back to the ballots on election day.

“I think the most important question, if we’re going to win in 2016, is how do you bring back the millions of conservatives who have been staying home?” said Cruz. “I don’t see a lot of folks who I think are likely to motivate, energize and mobilize the millions of conservatives to come out.”

Cruz is strongly opposed to same-sex marriage. By adamantly opposing laws that have already passed in 37 states, he hopes to win the support from the remaining conservative states.

Indeed, Cruz has blamed gay-rights activists for the controversy over the Indiana law. Mike Pence was “doing the right thing,” said Cruz. And the criticism of the bill comes from the liberal desire to “persecute anyone who has a good-faith religious belief that marriage is a holy sacrament, the union of one man and one woman and ordained as a covenant by God.”

Cruz was asked about the Supreme Court case that in June could eliminate state bans of gay marriage.

“The first thing, and I think the most important thing, every one of us can do is pray. Lift up in prayer,” said Cruz. He then went on to explain that, if the Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage, he would press Congress to enact a rarely used legislative tool to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over the issue.

The crowd responded well to the charismatic young Senator. One man interviewed by the Miami Herald even wished that Cruz had gone further in his condemnation of Indiana Gov. Pence’s recent backtracking on the extent of the law.

“I didn’t expect him to throw Pence under the bus, but I wanted him to go further,” said Tyler Brock of Sioux City. “I’m a Christian conservative who didn’t vote in 2012. I am the type of voter he is talking about.”