By Matthew Jack | [email protected]

With the Iowa caucuses close enough to touch, Sen. Ted Cruz held one of his final Iowa rallies in Iowa City, in which he sounded the call to caucus before leaving for New Hampshire with all 99 Iowa counties checked off his campaign itinerary.

One of the speakers who introduced Cruz was “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, who has publically endorsed Cruz and sponsored a campaign ad featuring the senator in full camouflage and face paint joining Robertson in a duck hunt.

Christian evangelicals were prime targets of Robertson’s speech, which emphasized that a priority of Cruz’s campaign was a return to Christian values.

Borge Zierke of Hubbard, Iowa, is undecided between Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and is attracted to both candidates’ appeal to his Christian faith.

Huckabee’s low poll numbers, however, hint to Zierke that he isn’t a viable candidate.

“I’m worried that if I vote for Huckabee that I’m wasting a vote,” Zierke said.

Robertson’s speech strengthened Zierke’s support for Cruz by painting him as a strong constitutionalist and a faithful Christian.

“What we have in America, it’s a spiritual problem,” Robertson said.

Some of his comments drew severe criticism on social media, including a brief diatribe against same-sex marriage, which he described as “depravity” and “perversion” of traditional marriage.

Another high-profile endorser of Cruz was conservative radio host Glenn Beck, whose speech — the longest of all the speakers — included anecdotes about the life of George Washington and his own struggle with alcoholism, which he credited as the force behind his Christian faith.

Criticizing the president’s refusal to use the term “radical Islam” when addressing terrorist acts, Beck described a difference between being Muslim and Islamist.

“I can live next to a Muslim… an Islamist needs to be killed,” Beck said.

He was met with calls of support from a spectator, Jim Knapp, who decried Islam as “a cult,” saying “Allah does not exist.”

Beck lobbed thinly veiled criticisms against several of Cruz’s opponents, including Donald Trump, by attacking his campaign slogan, “No man can make America great again; it is we the people.”

Referencing Cruz’s Cuban background and his father’s emigration from Cuba, Beck also criticized Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ millennial base.

“The youth [are] thinking, ‘Marxism, socialism, it’s a good thing.’ It’s not,” Beck said.

Beck ends his speech with a campaign video, repeating themes of consistent conservatism and his antiestablishment reputation before introducing “the most conservative presidential candidate.”

Cruz spoke to a vocal and unabashed crowd, some shouting words of encouragement, like “Jesus loves you, Ted,” met with resounding applause.

Some of his “Day 1” actions included a rescindment of “every illegal and unconstitutional executive action by Obama,” a Department of Justice criminal investigation into Planned Parenthood, a reversal of the “catastrophic Iran nuclear deal,” and an end to religious persecution.

In light of the final Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa poll which showed Trump as the Iowan front-runner by a comfortable 16 points among first-time caucus-goers, Cruz turned his focus towards a large caucus turnout.

He encouraged Iowans to recruit nine of their friends and family to follow them to the caucuses, so that each caucus-goer could effectively vote 10 times.

“If we stand together,” Cruz said, “we can win.”