(Republicaninformer.com)- CBS News reported last week that evangelical leaders don’t seem to be lining up behind former President Trump in the 2024 election and are instead, waiting for other Republican candidates to enter the race.
Franklin Graham, who was previously a big supporter of Trump, told CBS News that he doesn’t plan to endorse Trump or anyone else in the Republican primaries. Instead, he will “stay out of it” until the voters have chosen their nominee.
Graham told CBS News that he would not “get involved in supporting” one Republican candidate over another. He said it is up to Republican voters to decide and once the “dust is settled,” he would “make a decision.”
While Graham was a vocal supporter of Trump for years, in 2021, he suggested that Trump’s age and his health would make a presidential comeback a “very tough thing to do.”
But Graham isn’t alone. According to CBS News, several other evangelical leaders are keeping their powder dry, waiting for the Republican field to fill out in the coming months before making a decision.
Graham told CBS that the evangelical vote “is always up for grabs” and no politician “should take it for granted.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence, an evangelical Christian, has already started making inroads with evangelical voters.
He recently began touring evangelical churches, starting with Pastor Robert Jeffress’ First Baptist Church of Dallas, a move that irked former President Trump.
In a recent interview on Real America’s Voice, Trump complained that Jeffress hosting Pence was a “sign of disloyalty,” arguing that nobody has done more for the pro-life movement than he.
Jeffress told CBS News that he had “some communication” with the former president since Trump’s Real America’s Voice interview. While he wouldn’t get into detail about their conversation with Trump, Jeffress told CBS that he “didn’t put a lot of stock” in the former president’s accusation of disloyalty.
