Trump to ditch Iowa evangelical gathering after GOP gov said 'voters expect him' to attend events

GOP presidential hopefuls, minus ex-President Donald Trump, are expected to attend an evangelical gathering in Iowa Saturday night, The Associated Press (AP) reports.

This comes after the former president attended last's month's Iowa State Fair, but opted out of the which drew droves of the small chats and soapbox opportunities, which drew criticism from Republican Governor Kim Reynolds.

According to CNN, Reynolds told reporters that Iowa voters "'expect him to be here' if he plans to win, because 'they want to interact' with the candidates."

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Although Trump will miss Saturday's event, AP reports:

Former Vice President Mike Pence planned to attend the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition's annual banquet and town hall in Des Moines along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Also on the schedule of speakers were Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, as well as Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd.

During a separate right-wing Christian evangelical event Friday, September 15 in Washington, D.C., Trump bragged that "No president has ever fought for Christians as hard as I have and I will keep fighting for Christians as hard as I can for four more years in the White House. Every promise I made to Christians as a candidate, I delivered."

Spectrum News 13 reports a recent poll "in Iowa shows candidates other than Trump have room to grow," as "Close to half of potential Republican caucus voters backing Trump say they're open to other candidates, while only about 3 in 10 of those who don't choose Trump say they would consider supporting him."

READ MORE: If Trump wants to win, Iowa voters 'expect him to be here': Gov. Kim Reynolds

The Associated Press' full report is available at this link.