What Does God Really Tell Us About America? Hispanic Evangelical Leaders Decide to Vote for President Donald Trump in 2020
The last presidential administration shifted people’s tolerance for making allowances for their preferred candidates, said the Rev. Joseph N. Cousin, who leads Allen Temple A.M.E. Church in Cherokee County, a Georgia Republican stronghold that supported Mr. Trump by nearly 40 points in 2020. For many white evangelicals, there seems to be a comfort with religious hypocrisy if power can be achieved, he said.
“If you really bring it along racial lines, perhaps it is a group that was in the majority for so long trying to stay in that majority,” he said, “but on the flip side, you have to draw a line and say right is right, wrong is wrong.”
Tony Perkins, president of the political action committee associated with the Family Research Council Action, endorsed Mr. Walker on Friday. Mr. Walker’s story, he said in the statement, “is about the power of grace, redemption, and the opportunity America still provides.”
Few have settled on an answer yet, not surprisingly given that the first votes of the 2024 campaign are over a year away. The talk of the future showed both the heightened expectations among Hispanic evangelical leaders in Florida and the desire to demonstrate the power of their now.
“It is about morals, and there is one party right now that reflects our morals,” said Dionny Báez, a Miami pastor who leads a network of churches. “We cannot be afraid to remind people that we have values that the Republicans are willing to fight for. I have a duty to clarify what we believe. We cannot make that taboo anymore.
Hispanic evangelicals have dominated in Florida, where they make up 25% of the population and 21 percent of eligible voters. Though they are outnumbered among Hispanics by Roman Catholics, evangelicals are far more likely to vote for Republicans. Overall, Hispanic voters in the state favored Republicans for the first time in decades in the midterm elections in November.
A law banning abortions after 15 weeks was signed by him just last year at the Nacin de Fe mega church. He declared Nov. 7, the day before the midterm election, as “Victims of Communism Day,” appealing not just to Cubans in the state, but also immigrants from Venezuela and Nicaragua, who have helped swell the pews of evangelical churches in Florida. His campaign aides frequently spoke with Hispanic pastors, cultivating support that many expect Mr. DeSantis to try to capitalize on in a presidential campaign.