Explaining the appeal of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump among evangelicals, Ralph Reed on Wednesday said that people of faith “embrace” converts.
“It’s a teachable moment for everybody about the faith vote in America,” Mr. Reed said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “The first myth is that they vote based on identity politics.”
The founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition pointed out that Mr. Trump won the evangelical vote in the GOP primary contest against a field that included two sons of preachers in Sen. Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and a former preacher in former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
“When Reagan asked if he was ’born again,’ he said, ’we don’t use that phrase in my church,” Mr. Reed said. “He won the evangelical vote against Jimmy Carter.”
Mr. Trump is scheduled to appear at the “Road to Majority” conference that Mr. Reed’s group is hosting later this week in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Reed also said Mr. Trump understood this is an “unconventional year” that demands an “unconventional campaign.”
“He signed on the dotted line on the key moral and cultural issues that [fuel] this constituency,” Mr. Reed said.
“He’s pro-life, he says he is against federal funding for Planned Parenthood. He has said they do good things, but he has said they’re not going to get a dime of taxpayer money because they perform abortions,” Mr. Reed said.
Mr. Reed said Mr. Trump is also on record as supporting traditional marriage, that he opposes the Iran nuclear deal, and that he’s strongly pro-Israel.
Mr. Trump had stumbled at one point during the campaign over abortion when he suggested women who undergo illegal abortions could face punishment — omments that drew intense fire from groups on both sides of the issue.
He later clarified that the person performing the abortion would be the one held legally responsible in such a situation.
Mr. Trump has cited former President Ronald Reagan’s political evolution when explaining his own shifts on issues like abortion, and Mr. Reed said virtually all people of faith welcome converts.
“Particularly evangelicals because of their emphasis on the conversion experience are already pre-qualified by temperament and theology to accept a convert,” he said.
“So when somebody comes forward and says, ’I used to be this, but now I’m [that],’ they don’t turn ’em away,” he said. “They embrace them.”
Mr. Reed said that Mr. Reagan signed “the most permissive abortion law in America” before he became pro-life, and that former President George H.W. Bush and 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney had evolutions of their own.
“There’s nothing new about faith-based voters going ’OK, you’ve come our way,’” he said. “That’s a sign of success — not failure.”
Mr. Reed also said, however, that Mr. Trump still has some work to do to shore up support among evangelicals ahead of his coming general election battle against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “He’s getting 68 to 70 percent of [the] evangelical vote today against Hillary. That number needs to get to 75 to 80 [percent].”
“There is still some wait and see. There are still people kicking tires, and I think that’s one of the reasons why he’s coming to our meeting on Friday,” he said.
Asked about Mr. Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States, Mr. Reed said there’s a diversity of opinion.
“I think there are people, and they’ve spoken out, who said that they don’t think anybody should be excluded based on their faith. That’s certainly where I come down,” he said.
“But there are many other people who think — and you saw this reflected in the exit polls — every exit poll, 65, 70 percent of Republican primary voters, including evangelicals, saying you know what? There is an issue in the Muslim community — not all Muslims — but there are clearly people getting into our country who pose a threat and we need to do something about it,” Mr. Reed said.
“So it obviously resonated,” he said. “Like a lot of things that Donald Trump did in the primaries, the smart set said it would backfire on him, and it simply didn’t.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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