Iowa evangelical leader wants Republicans to 'turn the page' on Donald Trump: report

17 May 2023

A notable Iowa evangelical leader is publicly urging fellow Republicans to "turn the page" on former President Donald Trump, Rolling Stone reports.

Days following the former president's 2024 campaign announcement, Tessa Stuart and Asawin Suebsaeng, in a report for Rolling Stone, noted "evangelicals haven't been lining up behind Trump the way he hoped and want to hear what other 2024 candidates have to say."

Stuart and Suebsaeng wrote, "Evangelical leaders who once counseled Trump are openly bad-mouthing him or publicly declaring they can’t, in good conscience, cast a ballot for him again."

Bob Vander Plaats, who oversees the popular Iowa-based Christian conservative group, The Family Leader, is an example of one of those evangelicals.

The GOPer shared his recent News Nation interview via Twitter Monday, writing, "Iowa is crucial and wide open. We, along with the rest of America, are ready to choose a leader who unites us around the things that actually bless America. #ChooseWell2024"

News Nation anchor Leland Vittert said, "In the past you have said, sir, that Republicans should not choose a nominee whose entire focus is payback for what happened in 2020. Sounds an awful lot like saying it should be anybody but Donald Trump."

Vander Plaats replied, "I stand by that position," later adding, "I think Iowa is very open to finding an alternative to Trump to find out who's best prepared not just to win the primary but to win the whole thing."

Per Rolling Stone, the conservative faith leader pointed to two specific reasons for turning on the former president: Trump's "exhausting quest for 'vengeance'" over his failure to beat President Joe Biden in 2020, and his "recent efforts to soften his politics on abortion."

During the News Nation interview, Vander Plaats emphasized, "If we're gonna have a conversation about what happened in the past — or vengeance about what happened in the past — versus about a compelling vision for the future, we're gonna get beat in 2024," adding, "I think Americans are exhausted by it."

Regarding Trump's abortion stance, the evangelical insisted, "The pro life community expects better than that," adding the MAGA 2024 hopeful "alienates himself from the pro-life community by saying, 'You're the reason we didn't do better in 2022,'' and also by publicly slamming Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' recently signed 6-week heartbeat bill as "too harsh."

He added Iowa GOPers "are going to be open to anybody that's got a consistent pro-life message, and the credentials to back it up. And it so happens to be that Gov. DeSantis has that."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Rolling Stone's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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