With Senator Ted Cruz now rising in many polls, fresh attention is being paid to his policies as well as to his fundamental beliefs. What motivates him? What has he been trying to accomplish with his often-criticized actions on Capitol Hill?

Cruz recently helped fill in some of the blanks at the North Texas Presidential Forum, held at the 40,000 member Prestonwood Baptist Church near Dallas. The format was simple: Tell your personal story of faith and freedom and how you came to appreciate it, and then sit down with Dr. Jack Graham, head Pastor at Prestonwood, to answer pointed questions about your character, values and plans.

In Senator Cruz’s talk captured below, he shared his concerns about the loss of religious liberty in the United States. But he also emphasized his optimistic view that people in the country are “waking up,” and that 2016 will be a “pivotal” election, on the scale of 1980.

A video of Cruz’s twelve-minute talk is posted below. Below that is a 22-minute video of his detailed Q&A with Dr. Graham. The complete audio-only file of both is at the bottom of this page.

Five Questions for Sen. Cruz

Dr. Jack Graham — Question 1 (1:18-video):  “On judicial activism: How do you view judges who seem to be making law, rather than interpreting law? — If you were president, what kind of judges would you appoint? Particularly Supreme Court justices?”

Cruz: “It is an enormous problem and it is growing. A handful of unelected judges re-wrote the text of Obamacare and ignored the Federal statute to force that failed law on millions of Americans. … Five unelected judges purported to tear down the marriage laws of all 50 states. Both [decisions] were lawless; they were judicial activism; there’s not a word in the Constitution that supports them.”

Cruz went on to make the case that this issue effectively separates the GOP candidates. He mentioned that several of the candidates, after the Supreme Court decision in June of 2015 regarding same-sex marriage, came out and said, “It’s settled — it’s the law of the land.”

In his comments on judicial activism, Cruz then went into a detailed history of many Republican appointees to the Supreme Court who ended up supporting judicial activism because they had been appointed without good vetting by Republican administrations.

“The problem is, presidents have nominated judges who have said little and had no paper trail because they did not want a big fight,” he said. “The way to change that is for the president to be willing to spend political capital to wage the fight to appoint strict constructionists to the court.”

He ended the section by stating: “I have spent my entire adult life fighting judicial activism.”

Dr. Jack Graham — Question 2 (6:10-video): “People are frustrated that Washington is not getting things done. When people talk about being an ‘outsider,’ how does that work for you? As president, how can you affect change?”

Senator Cruz started his answer with: “I am very encouraged by what we’re seeing.” He even credits Donald Trump for helping set the tone. “Donald Trump has really framed the central issue in this primary: ‘Who will stand up to Washington?'” Cruz then went on to point out that a follow-on question should be: “Who has a record of standing up to Washington?” Then he related his history as a senator who stood up to Obamacare and led the fight to de-fund Planned Parenthood.

Dr. Jack Graham — Question 3 (9:35-video): “Many Evangelical Christians did not vote in the last presidential election. Should Christians engage in the political process? Talk about citizenship and our responsibility as you view it.”

Cruz said that he believes that the entire election will turn on this question. He believes that the lack of involvement in the political process by Christians is a big problem. He mentioned how his father, Rafael Cruz, who escaped from Cuba as a young man and eventually became a pastor, now speaks at large gatherings nationwide in an effort to awaken American pastors to their responsibility to lead.  He quoted a common saying his father uses: “If the flock stumbles into a ditch, you don’t blame the sheep, you blame the shepherd.”

Dr. Jack Graham — Question 4 (12:30-video): “The Affordable Care Act was supposed to make health care accessible at a lower cost. How is that working out and how do you propose to fix it?”

The short answer that Ted Cruz gave was: “It is a disaster; it is a train wreck; we should repeal every word of it.”

He then went into an interesting discussion of what he calls “The Washington Cartel.”  This is a loose group of Beltway career politicians “in both parties,” lobbyists, and special interest groups that do not want to repeal it, regardless of their constituents’ wishes.

Cruz said he believes the only way to combat this (and specifically repeal Obamacare) is to do something similar to what Ronald Reagan did in the 1980 election.  Reagan made that election a referendum on the tax code, and won. Then, with that mandate, Reagan was able to persuade Democrat Speaker Tip O’Neil to make the changes no one previously had been willing to make.

Cruz stated: “The way you get things done is you change the incentives.” He pointed out that no politican wants to stand in the way of a clear mandate.

Dr. Jack Graham — Question 5 (16:17-video): “How does your personal faith strengthen your life? Where do you get this courage, this fire, this passion?”

Cruz begins the story of his own decision to follow Christ by talking about his father’s decision to become a Christian when the senator was a small boy. His father had deserted the family and was not coming back. But he attended a Bible study that changed everything. Because of that, Cruz stated, he grew up in a strong, united Christian family and that determined his present course.

“Faith is an integral part of who I am.”

When Dr, Graham asked Cruz how people can pray for him, he replied: “Two things: Peace and wisdom.” Then he asked for prayers for his young daughters and had them stand in the audience. “It is very tough being on the road so much,” he stated.

Audio File of Sen. Cruz’s Entire Session (33:58):

See also: What Makes Ben Carson Tick?