Cruz and Carson have each made direct appeals to pastors within the evangelical community, with Carson frequently speaking at evangelical churches during Sunday services — events not advertised by his campaign staff. Cruz even launched an Iowa initiative in which he sought an endorsement from a pastor in each of Iowa’s 99 counties, an evangelical version of a “Full Grassley.”
Cruz frequently ends his campaign rallies urging his supporters not only to vote — but to pray.
“Pray, lift up this country in prayer,” Cruz told a crowd of a few hundred the day after the most recent debate at a rally in Columbia, South Carolina. “Spend one minute a day saying, ‘Father God, please continue this awakening, this spirit of revival that is sweeping this country. Awaken the body of Christ that we might pull back from the abyss.'” He then recalled that former President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office with his hand resting “on Second Chronicles, 7:14.”
Cruz, the son of a born-again Christian pastor, recited the passage verbatim from memory. And the stirred crowd nodded and murmured in approval.
Flash forward to earlier this week when Trump took to a podium at Liberty University. Students started an online meme poking fun at his attempt to quote “two Corinthians,” more typically referred to as “Second Corinthians.”
Trump’s rough edges may be part of his appeal, said David Andersen, a political science professor at Iowa State University.
“A lot of people come to Iowa and try to be evangelical. Voters can see through that. Donald Trump doesn’t care about being anything but himself,” he said. “Donald Trump is winning over evangelicals by being honest and not faking that he’s evangelical.”
Two other Republicans, Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee — who scored surprise wins in the 2012 and 2008 Republican Iowa caucuses, respectively, largely because of evangelical support – are also in the race again this year and seeking the same voters.
That crowded conversation has created an opening for Trump, Andersen said. “Evangelicals haven’t coalesced behind any one candidate, and Trump has capitalized on this,” he said.
Cruz and Carson, along with Huckabee and Santorum, frequently make their opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage key stump issues. Trump rarely, if ever, mentions abortion or gay marriage in his massive rallies, although he said that he is pro-life and supports traditional marriage in an interview with CNN this month.
Trump didn’t mention either of the issues at his events at Liberty University and Oral Roberts University. And it may not have mattered much at the Oklahoma school, where Trump was introduced by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and a conservative rock star whose latest book is a devotional, Palin praised Trump’s power as representing the “fabric of of America [with it’s] work ethic and dreams and drive and faith in the Almighty.”
Article Appeared @http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-01-23/how-donald-trump-is-stealing-iowa-s-evangelical-vote