Forty-two percent of white evangelicals backed Trump before the Iowa caucuses

Evidence

That morning, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas, introduced Trump. As a pastor Jeffress couldn’t endorse a candidate, but he made clear that he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t think Trump “would make a great president.” Jeffress wasn’t alone. Already at that point, before the Iowa caucuses at the beginning of February, 42 percent of white evangelicals supported Trump—more than any other candidate. The reason was simple, Jeffress contended. Evangelicals were “sick and tired of the status quo.” They were looking for the leader who would “reverse the downward death spiral of this nation that we love so dearly.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 2

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to sociological literature on status threat and symbolic politics driving white evangelical voting behavior. — connects to: White evangelical support alone would lose Trump the presidency — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 109; A 300,000-pamphlet church-lot leafleting effort flipped Iowa’s Senate race — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 126; White Christians supported Trump despite his apparent moral violations — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 18
• QUESTION: Worth chasing the exact Pew/exit-poll source for the 42 percent pre-caucus figure and how it compares to final 81 percent.