Evangelical voters are expected to play a key role in choosing the 2024 Republican presidential candidate. But what’s driving the conversation this time around?
As expected, Republican evangelicals will stand for issues like fighting for the sanctity of life, religious freedom, supporting Israel and conservative judicial appointments. But so far, in this campaign cycle, parental rights and the radical push on gender ideology are taking up most of the space.
GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley and others are sounding the alarm. “All of this wokeism is trying to change the core of what the family is,” Haley tells CBN News. “The family has always been one that prays at home, goes to church, teaches morals, grows their children and sends them out to do God’s work. That’s always been the case until now.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is expected to run, recently echoed that same concern on The 700 Club.
“If we teach our kids garbage, if we do not remind them that this is a Judeo-Christian nation and is the most exceptional nation in the history of civilization, if we can’t teach them the basics of reading and writing, and reasoning, if we get those things wrong, no secretary of state can fix that problem. The next generation will grow up thinking, gosh, we were taught America is racist. We were taught America is founded on an illogical idea and there is an oppressor class. You can’t get those things back,” Pompeo said.
For decades, evangelicals have focused on what kids are learning in the classroom. From homeschooling to school vouchers, the issue remains important. Now, the subject encompasses areas many parents never thought would be considered in the school curriculum.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who’s also expected to enter the race, has been at the forefront.
“You do not take a 6-year-old boy and tell him that he may actually be a 6-year old girl,” DeSantis said recently. “That is wrong and that is illegal in the state of Florida because of our efforts.”
Former President Trump has spoken on the same theme about protecting kids. “I will revoke every Biden policy promoting the chemical castration and sexual mutilation of our youth and ask Congress to send me a bill prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states,” Trump recently said at the conservative CPAC event.
While Trump still enjoys popularity with evangelicals, winning them over again in droves is not a slam dunk. As he now battles a legal indictment, it remains to be seen whether his support with evangelicals will drop or possibly even grow stronger.
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Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2022 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
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