Donald Trump’s comfortable victory in Monday’s Iowa caucuses once again shows that in a Republican electorate dominated by white evangelicals, no rival can touch him. Eight years after he lost the evangelical vote by 12 points to Sen. Ted Cruz, and with it the state, this year Trump received 53% of the evangelical vote as he won by roughly 30 percentage points. That’s not just because Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. It’s because, after his authoritarian presidency and its calamitous aftermath, he’s also the leader of the Christian right. Because Trump is now the leader of the Christian right, the customary interventions of Christian right leaders in presidential primary campaigns have faded from must-have endorsements to utter irrelevance.
In November, Bob Vander Plaats, the president of the Family Leader, endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Such an endorsement, from the head of one of the state’s most important Christian right organizations, used to be crucial to winning the state. Leaders like Vander Plaats would vet all the candidates, subject them to litmus tests about the intensity of their opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights, inquire about their personal stories of salvation and judge their commitment to governing a Christian nation. They sought and were granted power and influence by being kingmakers. But now, after Trump, this work has lost all significance. He’s both the chooser and the chosen one.
Iowa evangelicals are even more enamored of Trump than they were before they saw how he would govern — and unlawfully try to hold on to power.
Much has changed since Trump lost to Cruz eight years ago. In 2016, 64% of Iowa Republican caucusgoers were evangelicals, and Cruz eked out his victory after endorsements from Christian right power brokers and anti-abortion-rights leaders’ desperate plea to reject Trump. But Cruz, even with his long and deep connections in party and evangelical politics, ultimately fell flat against…
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