bob vander plaats
Iowa 'kingmaker' on the GOP race and white evangelical vote
The Iowa caucuses are now just three days away, which means the candidates are making their final pitches to a coveted group of voters: white evangelicals. Bob Vander Plaats is perhaps Iowa’s most recognizable and influential evangelical leader and is often called a kingmaker in Iowa politics. Lisa Desjardins sat down with him in Des Moines to discuss the GOP race (PBS News Hour 1/12/24) |
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Top evangelical leader says he doesn’t believe poll showing strong Trump support in Iowa
Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa evangelical leader, said he doesn’t believe recent polling that shows evangelical voters still support former President Trump. “I don’t believe them, and there’s a reason I don’t believe them – because it does not match up at all to what I’m hearing on the ground,” Vander Plaats told The Washington Post on Thursday. (Lauren Irwin/Yahoo 12/15/23)
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Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa evangelical leader, said he doesn’t believe recent polling that shows evangelical voters still support former President Trump. “I don’t believe them, and there’s a reason I don’t believe them – because it does not match up at all to what I’m hearing on the ground,” Vander Plaats told The Washington Post on Thursday. (Lauren Irwin/Yahoo 12/15/23)
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Top GOP candidates converge in Iowa for evangelical Christian forum that Trump skipped
Trump also did not participate in the Thanksgiving forum in 2015 during his first presidential run, and he avoided another Family Leader event hosted earlier this year. The group’s CEO and president, Bob Vander Plaats, has been urging Republicans to move on from the former president.The candidates were encouraged to keep it civil at the forum, with Vander Plaats telling the audience that the candidates were asked not to attack one another, could compliment “one another if it’s genuine, and we took all the sharp objects off the table.” However, Trump’s absence posed an opportunity for his rivals to take shots at him.
(Alayna Treene, Veronica Stracqualursi, Kit Maher/CNN 11/17/23)
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Trump also did not participate in the Thanksgiving forum in 2015 during his first presidential run, and he avoided another Family Leader event hosted earlier this year. The group’s CEO and president, Bob Vander Plaats, has been urging Republicans to move on from the former president.The candidates were encouraged to keep it civil at the forum, with Vander Plaats telling the audience that the candidates were asked not to attack one another, could compliment “one another if it’s genuine, and we took all the sharp objects off the table.” However, Trump’s absence posed an opportunity for his rivals to take shots at him.
(Alayna Treene, Veronica Stracqualursi, Kit Maher/CNN 11/17/23)
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Aug 16, 2023 #breakingnews #politicalnews #christiannews Despite former President Donald Trump's growing legal issues, he still holds a formidable lead in the GOP primaries. While current polls indicate it might not be possible for any candidate to beat him, one evangelical leader tells CBN News that's not what he's hearing from evangelical voters in Iowa, the nation's first Republican caucus state. "I think Iowa is going to be wide open, I do think it's very open to defeat Donald Trump," Bob Vander Plaats from The Family Leader in Iowa told CBN News. Conservative evangelicals played a key role in sending Trump to the White House in 2016. While he delivered on many policy promises, voters in Iowa tell CBN News his demeanor this time around remains a challenge for the values-based voting block. That leaves 2024 GOP candidates hopeful there's an opportunity to chip away at the front-runner's evangelical support |
"I think Iowa is going to be wide open, I do think it's very open to defeat Donald Trump," Bob Vander Plaats from The Family Leader in Iowa told CBN News.
July 13, 2023: Politico: DeSantis is hoping Iowa evangelicals can make his campaign born again
“I really think America wants to turn the page,” Bob Vander Plaats, CEO of The Family Leader, said in an interview. “If you’re looking for an alternative to Trump, I think Gov. DeSantis is the frontrunner right now.”
“I really think America wants to turn the page,” Bob Vander Plaats, CEO of The Family Leader, said in an interview. “If you’re looking for an alternative to Trump, I think Gov. DeSantis is the frontrunner right now.”
May 17, 2023:
Days following the former president's 2024 campaign announcement, Tessa Stuart and Asawin Suebsaeng, in a report for Rolling Stone, noted "evangelicals haven't been lining up behind Trump the way he hoped and want to hear what other 2024 candidates have to say." Stuart and Suebsaeng wrote, "Evangelical leaders who once counseled Trump are openly bad-mouthing him or publicly declaring they can’t, in good conscience, cast a ballot for him again."Bob Vander Plaats, who oversees the popular Iowa-based Christian conservative group, The Family Leader, is an example of one of those evangelicals. Per Rolling Stone, the conservative faith leader pointed to two specific reasons for turning on the former president: Trump's "exhausting quest for 'vengeance'" over his failure to beat President Joe Biden in 2020, and his "recent efforts to soften his politics on abortion."During the News Nation interview, Vander Plaats emphasized, "If we're gonna have a conversation about what happened in the past — or vengeance about what happened in the past — versus about a compelling vision for the future, we're gonna get beat in 2024," adding, "I think Americans are exhausted by it." |
May 15, 2023
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April 20, 2023: Reuters: Trump keeps edge among evangelicals, but there is an opening for challengers
Bob Vander Plaats, a longtime evangelical leader in Iowa, said he doesn’t yet see any “galvanizing” around Trump and believes the evangelical base is “exceptionally wide open” to hearing from all the candidates.
Bob Vander Plaats, a longtime evangelical leader in Iowa, said he doesn’t yet see any “galvanizing” around Trump and believes the evangelical base is “exceptionally wide open” to hearing from all the candidates.
Dec 19, 2022: Christian Post: Christian leader calls for 'fresh candidate' to lead Republican ticket in 2024
With the Iowa caucuses that historically kick off a string of presidential primaries in all 50 states slightly more than a year away, The Christian Post spoke with Bob Vander Plaats of the Iowa-based Family Leader, a socially conservative organization established to “strengthen families by inspiring Christ-like leadership in the home, the church and the government.”
With the Iowa caucuses that historically kick off a string of presidential primaries in all 50 states slightly more than a year away, The Christian Post spoke with Bob Vander Plaats of the Iowa-based Family Leader, a socially conservative organization established to “strengthen families by inspiring Christ-like leadership in the home, the church and the government.”