ANYBODY BUT TRUMP

Top Evangelical Calls for GOP Candidates to Back Leading Trump Challenger

Influential evangelical Bob Vander Plaats on Friday called for the crowded GOP field to thin out and make room for a single anti-Trump candidate.

Bob Vander Plaats, the Iowa evangelical leader with a tendency for backing the state’s Republican presidential primary winner, wants his party to rally behind a single challenger to former President Donald Trump. At an evangelical gathering on Friday, Vander Plaats said he hopes that later this year weaker GOP candidates will back out of the race to make room for a lone anti-Trump figure to emerge. “The more candidates, the merrier for the former president,” Vander Plaats said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “Division allows him to win.” Vander Plaats hasn’t given any candidate his official endorsement yet, but said he believes “Trump can be beaten in Iowa.” He also cast doubt on the former president’s ability to win a general election, noting that Christians “want a strong candidate that shares their values and convictions, but they also want a candidate who can win.”