CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

BRISTOL, Wis. — Julie Bayles did not decide she would vote for Donald Trump until she walked into the voting booth on Nov. 8, 2016.

The 44-year-old mother of seven took issue with Trump’s coarse language and boorish behavior on the campaign trail and found both incompatible with the commands of her own Christian faith.

“It was the hardest decision I think I’ve had to make as an adult in any voting process,” Bayles says.

“It was so difficult. And I think the reason it was so difficult is because I don’t take it lightly. This is important. This is our country. This is my seven children’s future.”

Bayles’ evolution to Trump voter demonstrates how the president exceeded expectations with evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics.

How did a thrice-married, Playmatecourting, areligious New York billionaire become the leader of an evangelical po- litical crusade? He punched back. And he offered a transaction: In exchange for Christian conservatives’ support, he vowed to defeat the enemies of religious liberty. Ultimately, they saw him as a warrior for religious freedom.

Bayles and her husband Donnie — along with two of their adult children — could easily have stayed home on Election Day when faced with their two choices. Instead, they were part of a political tipping point in Wisconsin, a state in which 22 percent of the adult population is affiliated with an evangelical protestant church and 71 percent overall identify as Christian.

The alliance between the billionaire and the believers, however transactional, has persisted well into Trump’s presidency.

“Funny, all of that anxiety, all of that praying,” Bayles says, “and it turns out I like him now much more than I did when I voted for him.”