'Firmly in his corner': Trump dominates white evangelical vote in Iowa after turbulence

15 January 2024

Despite the fact that he is facing four criminal indictments — one of which involves alleged hush money payments to an adult film star — Donald Trump has maintained a strong bond with white fundamentalist evangelicals.

Trump is not universally loved within Christianity; the former president has plenty of critics among mainline Protestants and Catholics (including President Joe Biden). But white evangelicals are among his most ardent supporters.

In an article published by Politico on January 14, reporters Natalie Allison and Adam Wren stress that evangelicals are crucial to Trump's efforts to win the GOP Iowa Caucuses, now underway.

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"In 2016," the Politico journalists explain, "evangelicals were a weak point for Trump in the primary. But eight years later — after the party took a hard turn toward Trump-ism — they now sit firmly in his corner. In the most recent Des Moines Register Iowa Poll released Saturday night, (January 13), Trump drew support from 51 percent of evangelical Christians in Iowa who plan to attend GOP caucuses, far ahead of (Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis at 22 percent."

DeSantis has been making a concerted effort to win over white evangelicals in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, yet some polls are showing DeSantis in third place in Iowa behind frontrunner Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Far-right evangelical activist Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition and ex-Georgia Republican Party chairman, told Politico, "Both the caucuses and the Republican nomination for president run through the evangelical community. There is no path to this nomination without winning a plurality, and preferably a healthy plurality of these voters, starting in Iowa, and then running through the remaining primaries."

Read Politico's full report at this link.

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