A week before the Iowa caucuses, Dr. Ben Carson is teaming up with Christian star power to try and boost his standing with the state’s powerful evangelical voters.
The Republican presidential candidate and his wife will join Christian rock band Casting Crowns and Kirk Cameron, the activist and actor known for his role on Growing Pains, for a “prayer worship experience” event dubbed Revive 714 at the Orpheum Theater in Sioux City.
The event takes a pointedly religious focus, while other candidates will be undoubtedly swarming the state hosting political rallies and town halls throughout the state in the second to last weekend before the caucuses. An hour earlier and 45 miles away, front-runner Donald Trump will host a rally in Sioux Center on the same day.
Carson’s deeply religious stump speech has impressed evangelicals, drawing big crowds to his events even as his polling lags several spots below its one-time first-place high this fall.
In the weeks before primary and caucus season kicks off in earnest, Carson’s made a decided push for evangelical voters above all others: he’s spent his time going back and forth from South Carolina to Iowa, both states with evangelical bases, while completely skipping the more moderate New Hampshire.
Still, despite Carson’s heavy push, Sen. Ted Cruz is still polling at the top of the Republican pack in Iowa. His own focus on religious freedom and his preacher father have helped boost his appeal, as did a bus tour to help the candidate finish making visits in all of the state’s 99 counties. The national front-runner Trump is polling just behind him, with Carson duking it out for third place with Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio.