“Eight years ago, needing a running mate to vouch for him among skittish evangelicals, Donald Trump turned to Mike Pence, tossing an olive branch to Republicans wary of the thrice-married real estate mogul who once said he was ‘very pro-choice,'” Politico reports.
“It’s a different story now: To those same voters this year, according to interviews with nearly two dozen religious leaders gathered here for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, Trump’s selection is bordering on a forgettable formality — less interesting to them because they’ve already made up their minds to back him, even if begrudgingly so…”
“It’s not that the vice presidential pick is irrelevant to the faithful.
Many evangelicals here say they want Trump to pick someone who is sufficiently anti-abortion, or even to Trump’s right on the issue — both because that person could press their cause inside the West Wing and because he or she could be in line to inherit the MAGA movement.”