On his first Iowa stop as a presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz warned Wednesday that a Supreme Court ruling to legalize gay marriage nationwide would be “fundamentally illegitimate.”

In the hour-long appearance at Morningside College in Sioux City, in Iowa’s conservative northwest corner, Cruz kept a tight focus on social issues even as he presented himself as a candidate who can appeal to many facets of the GOP.

“Religious liberty is not some fringe view. It is the basis of this country,” he said. He blamed gay rights activists and Democrats for the recent uproar over an Indiana law that would protect businesses who refuse to provide certain services on religious grounds....

He lamented the breakdown of a long-held bipartisan consensus to protect religious freedom, asserting that Democrats have shifted so far from the norm that “the modern Democratic Party would have described JFK as Steve King. That shows just how far they’ve gotten from who we are.”