

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) delivers his remarks at the morning plenary session of the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Sept. 26. (REUTERS/Gary Cameron)

There's a slew of Catholics that are leading the Republican Party these days. Many of them are vying to be the GOP's 2016 nominee -- and ultimately just the second Catholic president -- in 2016. They include: Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio. (Other GOP Catholics of note: Paul Ryan, Kelly Ayotte, Brian Sandoval and Susana Martinez.)

Another interesting tidbit about the religions of the 2016 GOP hopefuls: Three of them are either Baptist ministers -- Mike Huckabee -- or the sons of Baptist ministers -- Scott Walker and Ted Cruz.

Huckabee served as a Southern Baptist pastor at two churches before beginning his political career by running for president ... of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. Walker is the son of Rev. Llewellyn Scott “Llew” Walker, who is now retired, while Cruz is the son of Rafael Cruz, who is a pastor at a Baptist church in suburban Dallas after coming to the ministry later in life.

Walker now attends a non-denominational Evangelical Christian church. Joining him in the limited batch of non-Catholics and non-Baptists in the 2016 field are Ben Carson, a Seventh Day Adventist; Rand Paul, a Presbyterian; Rick Perry, an Evangelical; and John Kasich, an Anglican.

As mentioned above, American voters have elected only one Catholic president. They've also elected only four Baptists -- the last being Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton, for what it's worth, is a Methodist.

And if history is any guide, Paul's religion is the most politically advantageous. As the below chart from Pew shows, eight former presidents have been Presbyterians -- Paul's current religion -- while 11 have been Episcopalians -- the religion in which he was raised and baptized.