![]() They know they can win now,” Perkins said. “Oddly enough, it was Donald Trump of all people who raised the expectations of evangelical voters. His message has been simple: Some of Trump’s most reliable supporters are now up for grabs, but they won’t be won over with the half measures of the pre-Trump era. Perkins probably won’t lead a similar effort this time around-“It was a lot of work,” he told me-but he and his allies have begun meeting with Republican contenders to gauge the direction of their campaigns. One by one, all the GOP presidential aspirants met privately with Perkins and his group of Christian influencers for an audition, a process by which Trump made initial contact with some prominent leaders of the religious right. ![]() They want to look to the future they want someone to cast a vision,” said Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, who spoke at Trump’s nominating convention in 2016 and offered counsel throughout his presidency.Īt this time eight years ago, Perkins was heading up a secretive operation that sought to rally evangelical support around a single candidate. And this was all before the speculation of his potential arrest on charges related to paying hush-money to his porn-star paramour back in 2016. In my recent conversations with some two dozen evangelical leaders-many of whom asked not to be named, all of whom backed Trump in 2016, throughout his presidency, and again in 2020-not a single one would commit to supporting him in the 2024 Republican primary. The scale of his trouble is difficult to overstate. What unites them is a common recognition that, for the first time since he secured the GOP nomination in 2016, Trump has a serious problem with a crucial bloc of his coalition. Some of these efforts will be more sincere-more rooted in a shared belief system-than others. He is close personal friends with the organizational leaders who have fumed about it he knows that the former president has refused to make any sort of peace offering to the anti-abortion community and is now effectively estranged from its most influential leaders.Īccording to people who have spoken with Pence, he believes that this erosion of support among evangelicals represents Trump’s greatest vulnerability in the upcoming primary-and his own greatest opportunity to make a play for the GOP nomination.Īlthough Pence possesses singular insights into the insular world of social-conservative politics, numerous other Republicans are aware of Trump’s emerging weakness and are preparing to make a play for conservative Christian voters. Because of his intimate, longtime ties to the religious right, Pence understands the extent of the damage. Trump’s relationship with the evangelical movement-once seemingly shatterproof, then shaky after his violent departure from the White House-is now in pieces, thanks to his social-media tirade last fall blaming pro-lifers for the Republicans’ lackluster midterm performance. Piety aside, raw political calculation was at work. Read: Mike Pence refuses to connect the dots And it’s why, for one of the first major speeches of his unofficial 2024 campaign, he came to Hillsdale, offering repeated references to scripture while speaking about the role of religion in public life. It’s why he has spent the early days of the invisible primary courting evangelical Christian activists. It’s why, as he travels the country preparing a presidential bid, he speaks to themes of redemption and reconciliation. It’s why Pence titled his memoir, which describes his split with Trump over the January 6 insurrection, So Help Me God. ![]() It only stands to reason that a man who felt God’s hand on his selection to serve alongside Donald Trump-the Lord working in mysterious ways and all-now feels called to help America heal from Trump’s presidency. ![]() “In your life, and in mine, and in the life of this nation.” “I came today to Christ Chapel simply to tell all of you that, even when it doesn’t look like it, be confident that God is still working,” Pence told the Hillsdale audience. On this day in early March, however, it was a political proving ground, a place of testing for an older man who knows what he believes but, like the students, is unsure of exactly where he’s headed. The space offers a spiritual refuge for young people trying to find their way in the world. But this was his first time inside Christ Chapel, the magnificent, recently erected campus cathedral inspired by the St. The former vice president had spoken here, at Hillsdale College, the private Christian school tucked into the knolls of southern Michigan, on several previous occasions. ![]() T he sanctuary buzzed as Mike Pence climbed into the elevated pulpit, standing 15 feet above the pews, a Celtic cross over his left shoulder. ![]()
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