Southern Baptists debate which Republican candidate to support

Southern Baptists form a core part of the white evangelical Christian bloc that has reliably and overwhelmingly voted Republican in recent elections, and is expected to again in 2024.

But Southern Baptists are weighing their options in the GOP presidential primary field — some already lining up behind Donald Trump, others wary of the former president, whom most evangelical voters supported in previous elections despite his vulgar language, serial marriages and sexual bravado. Some are looking at what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or other candidates might offer.

But even critics of many Baptist voters' embrace of hard-right politics have little doubt where this is headed in November 2024 — support for whichever candidate emerges from the GOP nomination process. The only question is the extent of the fervor they bring to the polls.

In addition to Trump and DeSantis, other GOP candidates have made a point of proclaiming their Christian convictions, including former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President

Mike Pence and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Pence spoke to the SBC annual meeting in 2018.

“There is a segment of the white evangelical populace, they're looking for a way to distance themselves with the deal with the devil they made in 2016” in supporting

Trump, said the Rev. Joel Bowman Sr. of Louisville, Kentucky, who was among several Black pastors who left the SBC in 2021 in dismay over what they saw as a racial backlash in a denomination that had once formally repented of its forebears' racism.