The electoral weight of the Iowa evangelical community in the US Republican primaries
Bob Vander Plaats is the most influential evangelical leader in Iowa: he should be a sort of Kingmaker, so much so that while waiting for him to give his endorsement to one of the candidates at the caucus, the Politico website followed with bated breath what he had called « the Vander Plaats primaries.” But when the latter supported former Florida governor Ron DeSantis, this did not significantly shift the support of evangelical voters, who are largely with Trump. Two-thirds of Republican voters in Iowa define themselves as evangelical Christians: Donald Trump has 51% of the vote in this group. In the past, “men of faith” have prevailed in the caucuses, such as in 2008 the Baptist reverend and former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee who wanted to reconquer the nation to bring it back towards Christ, in 2012 the Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum who wanted to ban gays from the army and Ted Cruz himself who in 2016 denounced Trump’s “New York values” (they all later lost the nomination). But The Donald is also considered a man of faith by 64% of Republicans, according to a Deseret News poll. DeSantis, more ideological, managed to win only 22% of this group, despite visiting all 99 counties of the state often accompanied in person by Vander Plaats, who was also a candidate for governor and heads the organization The Family Leader . Trump’s campaign has published a list of over two hundred religious leaders in Iowa who support him and have opened his rallies with prayers. The New Yorker interviewed some of them, in small churches in rural areas: they say that Trump has opened the eyes of believers to the truth, to the ongoing battle between good and evil and they see his legal troubles as persecution.
January 15, 2024 – Updated January 15, 2024, 08:25
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