Republican contender Ted Cruz pulls ad featuring porn actress Amy Lindsay

Republican presidential hopeful and devout Christian Ted Cruz has pulled a campaign ad after it was pointed out that one of the actresses hired for the spot has appeared in such films as Carnal Wishes and Deviant Whores.

Amy Lindsay, who has also had roles in plenty of other, non-pornographic productions (including Star Trek: Voyager), tweeted her disappointment with Cruz's decision, which has drawn according criticism, but is hardly surprising given his base.

That said, he may have lost himself a vote – Lindsay, who is right-leaning, said she felt that her involvement in the campaign may have appealed to punters not ordinarily associated with the Republican Party.

"In a cool way, then hey, then it’s not just some old, white Christian bigot that people want to say, 'it could be, maybe, a cool kind of open-minded woman like me,'" she told BuzzFeed.

A spokesman for Cruz's campaign said that they had no idea of the true depths of Lindsay's body of work before casting the ad, in which a bunch of conservative Americans in a support group complain about being gipped by the political system.

Lindsay, who has one line in "Conservatives Anonymous", said she assumed the filmmakers were aware of "absolutely everything" she'd done when she responded to the open call, but later realised that wasn't the case.

Cruz and Donald Trump are currently the frontrunners in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Lindsay says she is still tossing up who to vote for.