It has been one year since the goal of evangelicals everywhere was achieved: the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And the man who, in many respects, made it possible is still their top pick for president, even if he isn’t the paragon of Christian virtue.
Appearing at a Faith & Freedom Coalition gala in Washington on Saturday night, the thrice-married New York playboy cited his appointment of three of the six justices who voted to strike down the right to an abortion. And in 90 minutes of speaking, he made sure to say that he was the best crusader on behalf of the Christian right.
“No president has ever fought for Christians as hard as I have,” he said, adding, “I got it done, and nobody thought it was even a possibility.”
It was the eighth appearance by Trump in front of the group, whose support would be vital for him to remain the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination
Virtually all of Mr. Trump’s rivals in the field appeared at the gala, which was part of the three-day Road to Majority conference at the Washington Hilton. Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, and Chris Christie were all attendees. In a speech at the gathering a day earlier, Pence called on the entire 2024 Republican presidential field to pledge support for a national abortion ban at 15 weeks — a ban more extreme than what Trump has backed so far. Despite his more conventional Christian conservative background, Pence is nowhere close to Trump in the polls.
In 2016, evangelical voters helped propel Trump to successive Republican primary victories in South Carolina and other key states. They’ve looked beyond Trump’s divorces, affairs, and previous support for abortion rights in the 1990s. Evangelical voters salivated at his promise to appoint “pro-life” justices and it paid off.
But Trump has sidestepped questions about whether he would sign a federal abortion ban and that has concerned some more hardcore activists. But in all truth, it’s the more viable position in a general election, without Trump, the conversation over a federal ban wouldn’t even be happening.
