RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) - Texas Senator Ted Cruz was Saturday night's keynote speaker for the Family Foundation of Virginia's annual gala.
Sen. Cruz spent over 21 hours last month railing against any government funding for the Affordable Care Act.
Along with Sen. Cruz, Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli also spoke at the event.
With the current government shutdown, that was a topic of discussion for the U.S. Senator.
Cruz discussed his views on the Affordable Care Act, saying that it's the number one job killer and is hurting the American people.
In response to Cruz, Brian Coy, Democratic Party Communications Director said "The last thing Virginians want to hear from a Senator who is holding thousands of workers across the Commonwealth hostage to his extreme agenda is to lecture about jobs."
"I don't think we should be in a shutdown," said Cruz. "Throughout the course of it I have said we should not shutdown the government. But sadly this is Harry Reid and President Obama's shutdown."
"We've seen pretty clearly that Ted Cruz came here after shutting down the government. They're holding the government hostage to a very extreme agenda. Democrats of Washington have said listen we'll negotiate we'll have policy discussions but you are not going to hold the federal government and economy hostage," said Brian Coy, Communications Director of the Democratic Party.
There were also protester's before Saturday night's event who said Cuccinelli shouldn't be campaigning with Cruz and said they both have inability to serve their people.
However, on Saturday night Cruz applauded Cuccinelli and said the Virginia people are lucky.
