Faces of Ted Cruz supporters in South Carolina

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — On Saturday night, three Daily Pennsylvanian editors attended a Ted Cruz watch party that witnessed his loss to Donald Trump, then just barely to Marco Rubio. We asked people in the crowd about why they support Ted Cruz over all other candidates, many emphasizing his Christian values and "proven conservative record." 

Photos by News Photo Editor Julio Sosa

Monica Tompkin, Texas (second from the right) 

“I have a 21 year old and she’s seeing that and she has to work really hard. I do this little test on the FAFSA, for the college entrance and I just changed her nationality to Hispanic, just to see what would happen, do you know that she got all the entitlements? When I put her back to Caucasian guess what? She got zero and we had to pay for it. What does that tell you? And I mean we work hard. We work really hard.”

Terry Lapoint (right)

“He chooses not to play the politically correct game — even with his own party he would stand up when he felt like they were just playing politics he would do what he felt like was right and constitutional."

Scarlet Gillis, 15, Florida

On getting involved in politics at a young age: “It’s good to kind of have an understanding for when it’s actually your turn to vote. You want to understand kind of instead of just hopping on a train with everyone else. You want to actually understand it and be able to make your own decisions. And for the right reasons.”

Nicholas Caporino

“Why Cruz? Because he has the proven record of doing what he says he'll do. He’s never broken a campaign promise; that means a lot to me.”

Nathan Spitler (left)

“I support Cruz because I really don’t like Donald Trump mostly. I’m a born and raised Republican and I still want to vote for the party, but I just don’t like the way Donald Trump treats certain people and groups — it just really rubs me the wrong way." 

Jenny Townsend, 16 (right)

"...the Ronald Reagan quote is 'Freedom is never one generation from extinction' and so if we don't go out and do it ourselves, if we don't make that effort and stand up for what we believe, it's going to slip from our fingertips. If we lose freedom, it's very very difficult to get back." 

Whitney Sands (left)

“I think the way Obama has implemented his healthcare plan has gone completely awry. That’s the main thing — it’s just not affordable, even with Obamacare. My parents recently got divorced and my mom doesn’t have healthcare anymore and she can’t even afford Obamacare… that’s a major issue for me and it’s close to my heart.”

Josh Farmer, 18 (right)

“He’s a good conservative Christian, he stands for what he believes…Some people are just stuck and the media doesn’t help. They don’t show who he really is. If you really want to know who he is you have to look into that because the media is not putting that out there.”