Ralph Reed: GOP Can't Forget Social Issues

Many potential Republican presidential candidates are attending Monday’s Faith and Freedom Coalition forum in West Des Moines, Iowa Wednesday. And coalition leader Ralph Reed Jr. tells Politico the candidates shouldn’t forget about the importance of social issues in the Republican primaries.

Some Republicans say the presidential candidates should shy away from divisive social issues and focus on economics, but not Reed. “This is a reminder that in spite of what the polls say nationally about the most important issues, there are literally tens of millions of grassroots activists within the Republican Party who will play an exaggerated role in the nominating process,” he told Politico. And those activists “want to have a nominee who thinks that social [issues] shouldn’t ride in the back of the bus,” he argues.