"I will not compromise away your religious liberty."
That was the vow Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz made to supporters in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho as he campaigned Saturday at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds.
Moments before Cruz addressed the crowd he was projected to win the Republican caucuses in Kansas and was ahead in Maine.
"God bless Kansas," he told his audience, to cheers. "And God bless Maine."
Cruz appealed to conservative and libertarian values with a litany of promises: To retain religious freedoms and the right to bear arms, to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to pass a flat tax.
"When we do that," Cruz said, referring to a platform of his campaign, "we should abolish the IRS."
The Idaho primary Tuesday has 32 delegates up for grabs for Republican presidential candidates. Cruz made his appeal to voters in north Idaho, especially if they had been supporting another candidate.
"We welcome you and embrace you," Cruz said. "Because if we stand united, that’s how we win this primary, it’s how we win the general, it’s how we turn the country around.”
Cruz went on to a rally at Boise State University Saturday evening. Marco Rubio has appearances scheduled for Sunday in Boise and Idaho Falls.