GOP Establishment Knows It ‘Can’t Do Without Us’: Evangelical Leader
By: Ben Johnson, originally published July 23, 2024, The Washington Stand
If the Democratic plan to change presidential candidates bolsters candidates in competitive races, the powers behind the Republican Party’s decision to water down its historic commitment to protect unborn babies from abortion and defend religious liberty “will be panicking” this fall and realize “they need us around,” says a leading evangelical figure.
The Republican National Convention formally adopted a dramatically hollowed-out platform last Monday in a controversial process that saw GOP figures foist the new language on party pro-life stalwarts without debate or dissent. That omission and others are important, because “history shows that the platforms chart the path that the party itself is ultimately going to take,” said “Washington Watch” guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice last Friday.
“I’ve been saying for a year we’re not going to run against Biden. It’s more and more evident that we’re not going to run against Biden,” said Chad Connelly, CEO of Faith Wins on “Washington Watch” Friday, two days before Biden relinquished his status as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The unpopular Biden’s departure may give a boost, not only to the Democrats’ presidential prospects, but to Democrats in swing states who otherwise would have been brought down by Biden’s drag on the ticket.
“They’re going to need us around in September. They’re going to be panicking,” Connelly told Hice. “They’re going to need us again, and they’re going to need us in the House and Senate races, the down-ticket races. Some of these people who’ve pushed this for so many years, they’re going to be the very ones coming back saying, ‘Why didn’t you help us? Or why don’t you help us?’”
Connelly complained about the process of the Republican National Convention forcing a change in the party’s popular pro-life plank, saying, “We were steamrolled.”
The platform also lowered its specific commitments on multiple issues of interest to grassroots conservatives. The 2016 Republican Party platform featured 16 references to God; the 2024 GOP platform mentions God only twice.
“That’s not necessarily concerning in itself, especially because of the word count cut,” Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, told Hice later in the show. But the big difference comes in how the platforms discuss God. “The 2024 platform, for example, mentions God talking about what Republicans will do with God’s good grace. And that’s important. We need God’s grace to do everything that the Lord has given us to accomplish.”
“That’s great,” said Del Turco. “However, we want a little bit more than that.”
“We want to see God put in a place of honor and reverence as foundational to our party’s values and our country’s values. And ultimately, we want to see God recognized as the Creator in our platform and recognized as the source of our rights,” said Del Turco. “These ideas need to keep us rooted, whether [they are] in the platform or not.”
“The religious freedom language is pretty good,” Del Turco assessed. The 2024 platform on religious liberty states:
Republicans Will Defend Religious Liberty
We are the defenders of the First Amendment Right to Religious Liberty. It protects the Right not only to Worship according to the dictates of Conscience, but also to act in accordance with those Beliefs, not just in places of Worship, but in everyday life. Our ranks include men and women from every Faith and Tradition, and we respect the Right of every American to follow his or her deeply held Beliefs. To protect Religious Liberty, Republicans support a new Federal Task Force on Fighting Anti-Christian Bias that will investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment, and persecution against Christians in America. …
Freedom to Pray
Republicans will champion the First Amendment Right to Pray and Read the Bible in school, and stand up to those who violate the Religious Freedoms of American students.
Del Turco noted that the proposal for a federal task force to fight anti-Christian bias is “something we’ve never seen before in our country’s history.”
“Sadly, the 2024 platform doesn’t mention international religious freedom at all,” Del Turco revealed. “Frankly, it’s a little surprising to see that it’s not mentioned in the current platform, especially because the Trump administration was such a great advocate for religious freedom around the globe.”
The present platform is also missing the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), a bill to prevent government from punishing Christians who hold to traditional views of marriage and sexuality. It also lacks any mention of posting the Ten Commandments in public schools, and could have had less muted criticism of the Biden administration’s weaponization of government against pro-life advocates and other traditional Christians, she said.
Connelly blamed the platform changes on moderate-to-liberal Republicans, who had long desired to move the party away from its grassroots and solidify its appeal to Wall Street and Silicon Valley tycoons.
“I think this has always been about the consultants. I don’t think this has been about President Trump, as much as I would think he would not get down in the weeds this much that they actually worked so hard to keep pro-lifers off” balance, said Connelly. “I think he gave some basic directives and consultants went overboard.”
“Ever since I went to my first [Republican National Convention] in 2004,” consultants have “been trying to water down the platform,” revealed Connelly. “I don’t think it’s anything new.”
The GOP consultant class “thought they could avoid abortion,” said Connelly. “Do you know there were anti-Republican billboards in Milwaukee talking about abortion?”
Former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel repeatedly encouraged Republican candidates to speak out on abortion, especially to highlight Democratic extremism. “And let’s face it, most of the people on our side don’t know how to talk about our principles,” said Connelly. “You could tell some of the speakers probably struggled with it. They don’t have their messaging right, either. The Left is not going to let us ignore the life issue and the abortion issue. We should stand strong on our principles and talk about them with conviction — always.”
But, he said, this will come back to haunt them. “They’ve not thought through this very well, these brilliant consultants,” Connelly continued, “because the more granular the election, the more they need evangelicals.”
Kamala Harris reportedly secured the majority of delegates needed for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination just over 24 hours after Biden left the race. Harris, who has a long history of working with Planned Parenthood and prosecuting pro-life whistleblowers, emphasized abortion in her first speech after Biden’s departure from the race on Monday.
Connelly reminded listeners that America is suffering, not from “Biden policies” but “progressive, Democrat policies,” which will endure after the figure at the top of the party changes.
This proves evangelicals must work even harder to win back influence in the Republican Party, he said. “I sent an email to my whole list of pastors throughout the country and said, ‘This just proves to me we need to redouble our efforts. If we’ve registered two million new Christians in the last two or three cycles, we need to register 10 million. Because, let’s face it, there’s not a healthy fear of God among those consultants who would push this kind of thing at the state level.”
The party’s vice presidential nominee, Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), seemingly alluded to the power of the pro-life, Christian vote. “There has been a lot of rumbling in the past few weeks that the Republican Party of now and the Republican Party of the future is not going to be a place that’s welcoming to social conservatives. And really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to say that is not true. Social conservatives have a seat at this table, and they always will, so long as I have any influence in this party — and President Trump, I know, agrees,” Senator Vance told the Faith & Freedom Coalition last Thursday, one day after accepting the Republican Party’s vice presidential nomination.
Vance asked pro-life advocates to give former President Trump “grace” and “trust,” advising an incremental strategy. Politicians ask, “What can we accomplish in the here and now?” and “how do we advance the ball one yard before we advance it 10 yards before we advance it to a touchdown?”
“They know they can’t do without us,” said Connelly.
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.