1250 AM WTMA – GOP moves early to court conservative Christians [From CNN News]

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The first votes of the 2016 campaign won’t be cast for another year but there’s already a race well underway: The Christian primary.

Republicans are actively courting white evangelical and born again Christian voters, knowing they will be crucial in early-voting states such as Iowa and South Carolina.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is urging people to join him next month in Baton Rouge for a day of fasting, repentance and prayer focused on the future of the United States.

On the same day, another gathering will take place in Des Moines, where at least five potential GOP presidential candidates will address Iowa voters on “core principles” that include “social conservatism.”

In August, Marco Rubio spoke at South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan’s “Faith and Freedom” fundraiser. Jindal, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Mike Huckabee addressed the Iowa Family Leader Summit in that same month. And in November, Ben Carson was the keynote speaker at the Family Leader’s annual fundraising dinner.

“It looks like we are going to have more social conservative candidates than we did the last time,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “It is going to be very competitive.”

That’s great for social conservatives who are yearning for Republican presidential candidates to speak openly and forcefully about the issues they care about: abortion, religious liberty, and same sex marriage, among others. But a competitive primary could wind up hurting their cause if they aren’t able to unite behind one or two candidates.

The splintering of white evangelical and born again Christians may provide an opening for a more centrist candidate to win the Republican nomination — leaving social conservatives, once again, frustrated that a candidate of their political stripe failed to win.

via 1250 AM WTMA – GOP moves early to court conservative Christians [From CNN News].