I had the opportunity to attend American Principles Project’s “Practical Federalism Forum” in Hooksett, N.H., this weekend. More than 250 people attended to hear speeches from Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum, and several other speakers.

I sat down with Cruz, Fiorina, and Santorum and asked each of them, “How would you define practical federalism?” Here’s what they said:

Ted Cruz: “It is the genius of the Constitution, it is the genius of the Tenth Amendment, that the states serve — as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis put it — as laboratories of democracy, that the Constitution defines the powers of Congress in Article I, Section 8 that they are few and enumerated and everything that is not in there is left to the States to decide. I’ve spent a lifetime fighting and defending the Constitution, we need to get back to the Constitution, and as President that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Carly Fiorina: “I think Practical Federalism is the recognition that our nation was founded on a set of incredibly profound, but incredibly practical, principles. We need to remember who we are now. We need to remember who we are. And who we are is laid out for us. It curtails the abuse of power by government, and it lifts up the rights of individuals to pursue their God given gifts.”

Rick Santorum: “Practical Federalism is locating the solution to the problems at the area most appropriate for those solutions to maximize the benefit for individuals in society. And the idea that, if you can handle a problem at an individual, family, community level, that’s where we should put the burden. If it’s too big of a problem for that area, then move it up to a local government and then a state government – it’s only when a problem becomes overwhelming that the federal government needs to weigh in. That’s the principle that Jefferson espoused, and if we go back to those principles and we look at areas where federal government inserting itself – like welfare – has actually done real damage to the structure that was most designed to help people, which was the family. Then, we can begin to repair the family unit by exiting the government – particularly the federal government – out of that equation.”

The “Practical Federalism Forum” was sponsored by American Principles Project, Cornerstone Action, and The FAMiLY Leader. A wide variety of topics were covered, including Common Core, AP U.S. History, monetary policy, and land use.

Shane Vander Hart is the online communications manager for American Principles in Action, a frequent contributor to TruthInAmericanEducation.com, and the editor of Iowa-based CaffeinatedThoughts.com.