These Four Presidential Candidates Have Vowed to Defend Marriage

At one time, supporting marriage and the family was as controversial as supporting the flag and apple pie. Those days are gone—at least for now. But some presidential candidates remain steadfast even when it is an unpopular position to take.

Four candidates signed a pledge issued by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) to defend marriage.

The Republican presidential hopefuls are Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. Rick Santorum and Dr. Ben Carson.

The pledge says the candidates support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution protecting marriage, will work to overturn the Supreme Court decision nationalizing same-sex “marriage” as an inalienable Constitutional “right,” support the First Amendment Defense Act and use the power of the executive branch to highlight the persecution of Christians who hold to traditional morality.

Cruz has already highlighted the persecution of Christians in America—and Iran—during a Rally for Religious Liberty in Iowa late last month. Santorum has spoken continually of the need to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

The four men are heads and shoulders above the other candidates on this issue, according to NOM.

“Electing a president in 2016 who is a true champion on marriage is a critical priority, something that is essential if we are to overturn the outrageous, illegitimate decision of the U.S. Supreme Court imposing same-sex ‘marriage’ on every state in the nation,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s president. “While many of the GOP candidates talk the talk about supporting marriage, these four candidates have distinguished themselves as true champions, having pledged to the American people to take very specific actions to advance the cause of marriage. NOM is committed to educating people about the importance of electing a true marriage champion as president of the United States.”

Governors Mike Huckabee and Scott Walker have said that defending marriage rises to the level of amending the U.S. Constitution. However, neither signed the pledge, because they say they have a policy against signing pledges of any sort.

“It’s unfortunate that some candidates have adopted a blanket position against signing pledges, because it puts them at a tremendous disadvantage in seeking our support,” Brown said. “There are strong candidates who have pledged to us and our supporters to take very specific and important actions as president.”

“We are far past the point where we will simply rely on generalities and broad statements from a candidate,” he said. “As President Reagan once said, we must ‘trust, but verify.’ Accordingly, we urge these candidates to reassess their stance and sign NOM’s pledge.”

Other candidates have been less than ideal. Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham and John Kasich have said the nation should “move on” and “take a deep breath.”

Kasich announced at the Fox News debate in Cleveland that he had recently attended a same-sex “wedding.”

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has been a vocal supporter of gay rights and “civil unions.”

Gov. Chris Christie refused to appeal a lower court ruling, making New Jersey the only state where the law was overturned by a local judge.

What does it say about the modern-day GOP that four—or at most, six—Republicans voiced their support for marriage out of the 17 Republican presidential candidates?