Family Research Council President: Cruz a 'De Facto Leader' of GOP

The president of the Family Research Council, one of the most prominent social conservative organizations, said on Friday that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is a de facto Republican leader.

In an interview with CNN’s Peter Hamby at Friday’s Value Voters Summit in Washington, D.C. which his organization sponsors, Perkins said Cruz has “become a de facto leader of the Republican Party” because “he is what people are looking for.” Perkins said Cruz is “somebody who will stand up and say, ‘This is what I stand for, this is what I believe.'”

After saying he “would venture to say that he is going to get a rock star reception here,” Perkins said what “he is doing is he is filling a vacuum.” He then said Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), the architect of the defunding Obamacare strategy, was another conservative leading the charge as well and filling the current void within the Republican Party:

There has been a complete breakdown between the formal GOP leadership and the outside conservative groups. There is even a breakdown between the GOP leadership and the conservatives on the inside. So you have Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise and others who are filling that void.