NEWS AND OPINION:
When President Trump won the election almost two years ago, his support from evangelicals was a major driver of the win — so much so that the Rev. Franklin Graham later commented that “God showed up” at the election. Some say it also could happen with the midterm elections, now 20 days off.
“Evangelical Christians will play a pivotal role in the coming midterms,” Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president and founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, tells Inside the Beltway.
“Evangelicals are flexing their political muscle on key issues like moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem like never before, and they’re determined to continue to help shape this administration’s agenda,” notes the rabbi, who pioneered bridge-building between the Jewish and evangelical communities.
Poll numbers would suggest Mr. Eckstein is right. Recent surveys from both ABC and The Washington Post, plus the Public Religion Research Institute reveal that evangelical support for Mr. Trump remains steady at around 70 percent. Presumably that support would help midterm Republican candidates since Mr. Trump is actively campaigning for them in battleground states, appearing at an average of four-to-five jumbo public rallies each week as the election looms.
The Family Research Council, meanwhile, has launched a “Pray, Vote, Stand” campaign effort which asks the faith-minded to make a personal vow to vote: “For the sake of America, I pledge to pray, to vote, and to stand for my biblical values,” the vow reads.
On Nov. 4, the FRC and partner organizations will host a public event just 48 hours before polls open to underscore that sentiment, featuring Tony Perkins, president of the group, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, evangelist Andrew Wommack, Bishop E.W. Jackson, Constitutional lawyer Michael Farris and others.
The election push includes a comprehensive voter guide, complete with a tutorial on how to pray effectively for the president and other elected officials. Some 30 religious and conservative organizations have also signed onto the effort, including the American Family Association and Concerned Women for America.
“Our religious liberty is in the hands of those we elect. Only prayer will guide their hearts wisely. Everything we cherish — faith, family, freedom, finances — is in the hands of the elected officials we send to Washington and our state capitols,” the organizers note.
NETWORKS POISED FOR HUGE COVERAGE
ABC News executive Marc Burstein predicts the broadcast coverage of the upcoming midterms election night will be off the scale.
“I think this is absolutely the biggest midterm election in my time — and maybe a generation. We are treating this as if it were a presidential election,” Mr. Burstein tells Variety.
“There’s good reason to pull out all the stops. Viewership is likely to be intense, just as it was for the news networks’ coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s September hearing of testimony from then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh,” writes Variety analyst Brian Steinberg, who notes that even late-night TV is planning special coverage.
WHERE IS THE (FORMER) PRESIDENT?
“With just three weeks to go before one of most critical midterm elections in modern American history, the most powerful figure in the Democratic Party has kept his distance. Barack Obama’s involvement in the 2018 cycle was always bound to be limited. The former president has stressed his desire for the future generation of Democratic leaders to step up, along with a reverence for norms dictating that ex-presidents should not criticize current ones,” writes Daily Beast politics editor Sam Stein.
But Mr. Stein also reports that “with fear growing within the party that they may not win back either chamber of Congress, even members of Obama’s alumni network are beginning to question whether the detachment is strategic at all.”
Mr. Obama has attended only three campaign events, has mention the word “vote” only three times to his 103 million Twitter followers, and lent his name to 20 fundraising solicitations.
“Everyone agrees that he is doing very little. There is just a debate as to whether that is savvy or not. I think the people who are closest to him are probably all pretty comfortable with him not being as actively engaged. The people in circles of influences outward wish he was being engaged more,” a former top Obama official told Mr. Stein.
THE POWER OF ’LOW-DOLLAR DONORS’
There is now “record support from the grass-roots” for President Trump according to his third quarter campaign report to the Federal Election Commission.
“The Trump Campaign raised over $18 million in the third quarter. These totals continue a record fundraising streak for a president’s first seven quarters in office. The Trump Campaign also reported cash on hand of over $35.4 million through the quarter. The report shows that the vast majority of contributions to President Trump’s re-election committee came from donations of $200 or less. ’Low-dollar’ contributions represent 97.6 percent of the total funds raised in the quarter,” the campaign advises.
MEANWHILE IN WEST VIRGINIA
Republican Carol Miller has overtaken Democrat Richard Ojeda in the race for West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District with a 48 percent to 45 percent lead, says a new Monmouth University Poll.
“Ojeda’s personal appeal and the presence of a popular Democratic U.S. Senator at the top of the ticket have kept him in a race where all the underlying fundamentals — especially President Trump’s popularity — favor Miller. The question is whether that is enough to keep this race competitive as the district starts reverting to its GOP norms,” the poll analysis says.
“Ojeda’s share of the vote hasn’t really moved since the summer while Miller’s standing has risen. These results are a sign of Republican voters returning to the fold in a district that leans Republican, especially in its support of the president,” says Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.
POLL DU JOUR
• 66 percent of Americans have heard of social media “bots.”
• 80 percent of this group say bots are mostly used for “bad purposes.”
• 66 percent say bots have a negative effect in keeping Americans informed.
• 64 percent say “a fair amount of news” the public gets on social media comes from bots.
• 47 percent say they can recognize a bot; 38 percent say they cannot.
Source: A Pew Research Center American trends Panel poll of 4,581 U.S. adults conducted July 30-Aug. 12 and released Tuesday.
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• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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