Evangelicals strengthen political influence
NASHVILLE — They promise a conservative “awakening” in America unlike any other seen in the past decade, a show of political force that will rock the Republican electorate.
Evangelical leaders who are feeling more isolated in a Republican Party focused on fiscal issues rather than social debates are planning to assert themselves ahead of a free-for-all GOP nominating contest with more than a dozen contenders.
At church gatherings and political rallies across the South, pastors and some presidential candidates plot a return to culturally conservative messages that aim to push back against same-sex marriage,
abortion rights legislation, the spread of legalized marijuana and other signs of what they see as creeping secularism.
They do so even at the risk of alienating parts of the electorate, including some younger and moderate voters who view national debates such as the one that has long raged over gay weddings as long in the rear-view mirror. But in interviews and at forums, many said it was worth the risk to pull the Republican Party toward the right.
“America is turning toward the left,” said Jessica Caspers, a resident of Thomaston, Ga., whose husband is a pastor at a local Baptist church. “And evangelicals, this time, want to find a candidate who really represents us.”
Several of the 15 Republican candidates
for president are fiercely maneuvering to become the darling of the evangelicals, who play an outsized force in states that make up the March 1 “SEC primary” voting bloc. About 1 in 4 Americans identifies as an evangelical Protestant, but that number grows across much of the South.
It’s why some of the most ardent conservatives, including neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and ex-Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum have leveraged combative rhetoric to capture the imaginations of evangelicals even as they try to prevent the bloc from splintering.
They also are trying to cut into the support of Donald Trump, the pugnacious casino mogul who has built a surprisingly solid lead among Christian conservatives.
Cruz and Huckabee journeyed recently to a rally at Rock Springs Church, an evangelical megachurch in Milner, Ga., about 50 miles south of Atlanta, to curry favor with thousands of conservatives who had traveled from all over the region for a fireworks show, a Charlie Daniels concert and face time with the candidates.
The theme of the evening, if there was one, was dissatisfaction with establishment Republicans, such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who have taken more moderate approaches on issues such as gay marriage and illegal immigration.
“I appreciate you standing against the Democrats,” the rally’s organizer, Benny Tate, said to thousands huddled on the rolling hills on the church’s campus. “But I really appreciate you standing against the Republican Party when you think they are wrong.”