“Not all on the list are acceptable, and that’s being communicated,” says Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council.
WASHINGTON — The sudden vacancy on the Supreme Court has both energized and divided white evangelicals — some of President Donald Trump's most loyal supporters — who have been making different cases to the White House about the type of nominee he should put forward and the timing for Senate confirmation.
While some of the president's allies have pointed to the Senate's bipartisan 80-15 vote last year to confirm Lagoa to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as an advantage, Perkins said that's actually a significant drawback, because it shows she's not hard-line enough. "You never want to give a child their dessert before they eat their meat or vegetables. So I've had a concern that it could possibly spoil the appetite of conservatives," Jeffress said. But first, he said, the president has to navigate the divergent demands from evangelicals.
Trump's support among white evangelical voters this summer — 69 percent — lagged behind the support he enjoyed four years ago — 78 percent — according to a survey conducted by the American Enterprise Institute, or AEI, a conservative think tank based in Washington. A Fox News poll over the summer also found that Trump was underperforming among white evangelicals.
Trump's drop in support among evangelicals has been in part because of disapproval of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused more than 200,000 deaths. And it mirrors a broader gender gap in his support, according to the AEI survey of registered voters, which found that 63 percent of white evangelical women are backing Trump, compared to 76 percent of white evangelical men.
"This nomination fight could be the turn-out-the-vote key to the entire election for Trump," said evangelical activist Joel Rosenberg, editor of All Israel News."The Trump base is very worried, and this nomination is going to remind them: If you sit home and let your friends sit home, everything you believe in is going to be washed away."
Josh Hammer, a lawyer at First Liberty Institute, a legal group that identifies as defending religious freedom, said a nominee should have a clear record of opposing Roe v. Wade. He said religious conservatives are fearful that a nominee would follow the trajectory of David Souter, a justice appointed by President George H.W. Bush, who reliably sided with the more liberal-leaning justices toward the end of his tenure.Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
Rosenberg said evangelical voters have tried to overlook some of his rhetoric or actions because,"overall, the agenda has been so positive."
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