Wednesday, May 8, 2019 | Steve Jordahl (OneNewsNow.com)
One of President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisors disputes a poll that some say shows the chief executive’s support among evangelicals for a second term isn’t as solid as it initially appears.
The recent poll commissioned by the American Enterprise Institute says support for President Trump among evangelicals is softening. The poll, conducted by Morning Consult for AEI, found 71 percent of all Republicans want to see Trump at the top of the ticket in 2020. But among white, evangelical Protestants, just 55 percent felt that way; 18 percent indicated a preference for Vice President Mike Pence.
Morning Consult’s Joanna Piacenza explains why respondents were given that option: “One of the things that we had talked about when we were writing this question is whether or not we’d see a larger share going to Pence – because Pence, for many white evangelicals, might be a figure who represents their values a bit more than Trump.”
Only one problem with that, says evangelical presidential advisor Pastor Robert Jeffress: Pence is not, and will not be, at the top of the ticket.
Jeffress
“To ask evangelicals whether they would rather have Trump or Pence at the top of the ticket is like asking would you rather have Trump or Billy Graham,” he tells OneNewsNow. “Well, Billy Graham isn’t an option for several reasons.”
In fact, says Jeffress, the president is in fantastic shape with white, evangelical voters. “When you add those two numbers together [55% and 18%] you still have 70-plus percent [of that group] wanting Trump and Pence at the top of the ticket,” he observes.
In November 2016, 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for the Trump-Pence ticket over Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. The Southern Baptist pastor predicts Trump could have an even larger margin of evangelicals supporting him in 2020 than he did in 2016.
“I was there for the National Day of Prayer [last week] and I tell you, all I could hear from evangelical leaders was their effusive praise for President Trump – not on what he would promise to do, but on what he’s already accomplished,” Jeffress shares. AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookFacebookShare to TwitterTwitterShare to EmailEmailShare to MoreMore1
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