Ted Cruz's campaign now has a 'prayer team'

As Republicans compete for the coveted evangelical vote in Iowa, Ted Cruz has a secret weapon at his disposal: a national prayer team.

Set to launch in December, the team will be made up of members who will receive prayer requests via email and invitations to participate in a 20-minute prayer conference call once a week. "I don't have a political or tactical angle on it. It is what it is. It's a group of people who wanted to get together and pray for Ted and his wife and the nation as a whole," Cruz's spokesman, Rick Tyler, told The New York Times.

A prayer or two might come in handy for Cruz right about now: Ben Carson currently leads the polls among evangelicals and is considered a "strong contender" for the important endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats, an Iowa Christian leader, The New York Times reports. Fifty-seven percent of Republican caucus goers in Iowa are evangelicals, compared to 25 percent of the overall U.S. population.

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