Conservative speakers, some familiar and some new, delight GOP crowd

DES MOINES — Some familiar faces restated their resumes, while some few faces introduced themselves and charged the crowd.

The race for the Republican Party's presidential nomination is on.

Roughly a dozen potential Republican presidential candidates flocked to Des Moines to speak at an event hosted Saturday by U.S. Rep. Steve King and Citizens United.

Roughly 1,000 people filed into the Hoyt Sherman Place theater, and most stayed for the more than nine hours of speeches.See Also: Freedom Summit 2015: What they Said

The winners of the last two Iowa GOP caucuses, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, spoke, as did Rick Perry, who also ran in 2012, and Sarah Palin, the party's vice presidential candidate in 2008.

But some of the heartiest crowd responses came for new potential candidates like Scott Walker and Ted Cruz.

Darwin Edwards, an Iowa native who now lives in Fayetteville, Ga., and came back for Saturday's event adorned in an American flag-collared shirt, said he was struck most by Walker and Cruz.

'(Walker and Cruz were) two that I had heard about, but today made the hair stand up on my arms, both of them,' Edwards said. 'I really think they did a fantastic job.'

Craig Robinson, who publishes a conservative blog in Iowa and is a former state party leader, declared Walker the event's 'winner,' in no small part because he feels the Wisconsin governor made an excellent first impression.

'No. 1, in terms of candidates, he's a new face. So while he's been to this state before and he's spoken at events before, we're looking at him in a much different light now,' Robinson said. 'He is someone who I think is on everyone's short list, in terms of activists looking at candidates. I think he makes everyone's list (of candidates) that they're interested in.'

Walker, using a hand-held microphone as he paced the stage wearing no suit jacket and rolled-up sleeves, told stories of the 2011 protests in Wisconsin over his measure to strip public unions of most of their collective bargaining rights. Walker told the crowd that some protesters made death threats to him and his family.

When he got to policy, Walker became more fiery, and the crowd responded favorably.

'I think it was important for him to deliver a speech that met those expectations, and I thought he far exceeded them,' Robinson said of Walker. 'I thought he showed a lot of passion, fire, good content.'

Perhaps the biggest losers were two of the biggest names in the potential presidential race, neither of whom attended Saturday's event: Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush.

King said at the program's outset and conclusion that he believes the next president was in attendance Saturday, making clear his feelings about the prospects of Romney and Bush.

Donald Trump gave the most pointed criticism of the duo, saying neither should be the party's nominee in 2016 and guaranteeing that either would lose to the Democratic nominee. Trump said Romney 'choked' in the final months of the 2012 election and criticized Bush for his moderate views on immigration and education.

Those in attendance seemed to agree. Trump's and King's comments received loud applause.

The event also drew protests that disrupted the speeches of governors Perry and Chris Christie.

The Dream Action Coalition, an immigration advocacy group, took credit for the protests.

During Perry's speech, protesters in the balcony stood up, held signs that said 'Deportable?' and yelled to Perry asking whether he, as president, would deport their families.

The protesters were escorted out by police, as was a single protester who interrupted Christie's speech.

King is well known for his provocative comments on immigration. A staunch opponent of allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the country, King in a recent tweet called them 'deportables' and previously said half of them are drug smugglers 'with calves the size of cantaloupes.'

Immigration advocacy groups protested outside the event Saturday.

King fumbled over a line in his opening address, saying 'planet' when he meant 'continent.' In his recovery, he said 'Those people across the street (protesting), they came from another planet.'