Republicans are looking to Georgia evangelicals to help save their majority in the Senate.
The Washington Times reported churchgoing voters are being courted to support Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the Jan. 5 runoffs.
“To win these runoffs, Republicans have to have — there are no ifs, ands or buts about it — they have to have a large turnout from the evangelical community,” said former Georgia House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, who chaired the Christian Coalition for part of the 1990s.
Vice President Mike Pence directed his message at these voters on Thursday during a swing through the state on behalf of Perdue and Loeffler.
“You remember under the last administration our values and freedoms were under regular assault,” Pence said. “The last administration trampled the religious liberties of Americans on a regular basis.”
And he added: “Well, I’ve got news for the Democrats in Washington and their friends in Hollywood. That dogma lives loudly in me, and that dogma lives loudly in you, and the right to live and worship according to the dictates of our faith lies loudly in the Constitution of the United States of America.”
Charles S. Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, said: “If White evangelicals don’t turn out, Republicans don’t win. White evangelicals play the role on the Republican side that African Americans play on the Democratic side.”
An Emerson College poll found that Perdue was leading Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff by three points, and the same held true for Loeffler in her race against Democrat Raphael Warnock.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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