Ted Cruz is clearly courting the evangelical vote, but he has good reason — too many evangelicals stay home and don’t vote in presidential elections, then wonder why we have a million abortions a year, judicially-imposed same-sex marriage, and religious liberty infringements.

Last week at a religious liberty rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Cruz said this:

You wonder why we have a federal government that comes after our free speech rights, that comes after our religious liberty, that comes after life, that comes after marriage, that comes after our values? It is because 54 million evangelical Christians stayed home [in 2012].

While Mitt Romney was far from a perfect candidate — perhaps the epitome of an imperfect Republican candidate — there’s no question America would be different in 2015 if a few hundred churches’ worth of evangelical Christians came out to vote in November 2012.

So what was Cruz’s conclusion from this point?

“Well I’m here to tell you, we will stay home no longer.”

Amen, Senator.

Thomas Valentine is a researcher for APIA and a junior at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.