Cruz, a first-term Republican from Texas, is one of several potential presidential candidates attending the daylong event in Des Moines that is seen as a kickoff to the 2016 caucus campaign. Opposing the fuel standard, he said, was a matter of principle that he believed even Iowans could appreciate.

“Voters are looking for a candidate who will tell them the truth and actually do what he said he would do,” Cruz said. “It is easy for a political candidate to go from state to state and adjust his or her positions as convenient to pander to one group or the other. That is one of the things that contributes to so many Americans being rightfully cynical about politics.”

The fuel standard, known as the RFS, is the federal mandate for blending corn-based ethanol into gasoline fuels. It’s immensely popular in corn-growing Iowa, where the ethanol industry has exploded over the past decade thanks in part to the mandate.

Gov. Terry Branstad announced this week that he’ll lead a campaign to “educate” caucus candidates on the value of the fuel standard.

Cruz, though, opposes what he calls government intervention into the market for energy and has specifically proposed phasing out the RFS over five years. On Friday, he reiterated that position and said he’ll maintain it regardless of the political cost in Iowa should he run for president.

Cruz on Friday also showered praise on U.S. Rep. Steve King — a sponsor of Saturday’s summit — while carefully sidestepping a question about the congressman’s controversial rhetoric on immigration.

“I like and respect Steve King,” Cruz said. “He is a friend of mine, and he has been a tenacious fighter for conservative principles in Congress.”

King has a long record of inflammatory comments, and caught flak just this week for referring to a young woman who was brought to the United States illegally as a child as a “deportable.” Much of the Democratic messaging in response to the Freedom Summit is focusing on King’s statements and trying to portray the other Republicans in attendance as similarly controversial.

“Every elected official communicates differently,” Cruz said. “I try to focus on how I communicate.”

For his speech on Saturday, Cruz promised a bold, Reaganesque message for Republican activists — an argument that an uncompromising conservative should win the GOP nomination and can win the presidency in 2016.

“There are some who argue that the path to victory lies in the mushy middle,” Cruz told the Register on Friday. “I, for one, agree with President Reagan that we win at the ballot box when we paint in bold colors and not pale pastels.”

That phrase “mushy middle” has been a Cruz talking point for months (helpfully catalogued by Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel) and is widely interpreted as a knock against Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, more moderate Republicans who are considering candidacies.

Cruz’s invocation of Reagan is also a rhetorical staple.

The 2016 race is shaping up to be a contest like the presidential race of 1980, he said, in which Americans reject the Democratic candidate in favor of an unambiguous conservative. (Ronald Reagan won the GOP nomination over the more moderate George H.W. Bush in 1980, then defeated incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter in November.)

But Cruz also said Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucusgoers will also be looking for someone who bridges the party’s various factions.

“Iowa Republicans are going to be looking for a candidate who can bring together and unite the many disparate elements of the Republican coalition, who can bring together and unite conservatives and evangelicals and libertarians and small-business owners and young people,” Cruz said.

The first-term Republican from Texas is one of at least eight speakers appearing in Des Moines on Saturday who are considering a 2016 presidential run. Romney and Bush won’t be among them.

Cruz has not formally declared his candidacy and said Friday that he would make a decision “in the next several months.”

He’ll arrive in Iowa early Saturday morning and leave on Sunday. In addition to the Freedom Summit, Cruz said he’s holding a more informal — and private — roundtable meeting with Iowans.