Republican presidential candidates are trying to convince evangelicals that they can deliver everything former President Donald Trump did without controversies.
The key block of GOP voters supported Trump in both 2016 and 2020, and that support is a major reason the former president rates as the top contender for the 2024 nomination despite his legal woes.
Pew Research said Trump won 77% of white evangelicals in 2016 and 84% in 2020.
"No man is going to be perfect, but he carried our agenda," said Nelson Amaya Jr., 28, of Baltimore, Maryland, The Wall Street Journal reported. "We know Trump, we know how he works."
Still, Republican presidential candidates are making their pitches during the Faith & Freedom Coalition's gathering at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, D.C., on Friday and Saturday.
"There's no road to the nomination that doesn't go through this community," said Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. "If I'm one of the candidates polling in single digits or low double digits this weekend, I want to make a very strong impression and generate a buzz."
Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are among the speakers scheduled at the event.
Trump will give the keynote address on Saturday, the first anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.
Evangelical or born-again Christians have declined as a share of all Americans but accounted for more than 20% of voters in the 2020 elections. AP VoteCast reported that evangelicals supplied 37% of Trump's total votes, compared with 8% of President Joe Biden's total.
Presidential candidates looking at the early primaries next year know that evangelicals are influential in Iowa and South Carolina.
DeSantis, who runs second in most polls, Pence and Scott have put an emphasis on Iowa.
Reed said evangelicals want more from a candidate than simply expressing his or her faith.
"They understand that in the end, the only thing that matters is who's going to appoint the right people to the courts, who's going to sign the right executive orders and who's going to fight for them when the chips are down and someone says, 'There's no way to get that nominee through the U.S. Senate,' " Reed said.
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