Several GOP Presidential Primary candidates descended on Washington, D.C. to garner support from the ‘Christian Conservative base’ and evangelicals where they addressed attendees of the Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand Action Summit. Meeting every year since 2006 and formerly known as the Value Voters Summit, ‘Pray, Vote Stand’ is a national gathering of spiritually active, governance engaged conservatives.
Trump, DeSantis, Ramaswamy and Pence all took the stage and were all greeted enthusiastically by the crowd of about 1,000. I was on the ground for Real Americas Voice News at the two-day event getting the pulse of the people and gauging their response. In addition to the four Presidential candidates, there was a long list of speakers including Rep. Byron Donalds, Dr. Ben Carson and North Carolina’s firebrand Lt. Governor Mark Robinson and U.S. champion swimmer Riley Gaines.
Donald Trump got the strongest reception at the Summit where he reminded the crowd that he was the only president to attend the ‘March For Life’ rally and did more for the pro-life movement than any other U.S. president. As the last speaker on Friday, he spoke about twice as long as DeSantis and the other candidates and had the audience on their feet throughout. Trump handily won the straw poll among the Christian Conservative base who attended by garnering 64% to DeSantis’ 27% support for the GOP Presidential nomination.
There was a mainstream media narrative on Friday claiming that previous Trump tweets were an act of intimidation against witnesses in the D.C. indictment. Prosecutor Jack Smith asked for a gag order against Donald Trump. However, Trump doubled down on Friday at the Family Research Council conference by saying that Jack Smith was “deranged” and that he is entitled to his opinion and enjoys free speech. Trump even joked that he may even have some fun in this regard at Jack Smith’ expense going forward.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gave a powerful speech celebrating his accomplishments in Florida and how he has stood up for Christians and conservatives throughout his tenure in his home state. DeSantis prided himself during the speech that while other states shut down churches but kept liquor stores and strip clubs open during Covid, Florida did not follow suit. “Not in the state of Florida, we didn’t do that,” DeSantis exclaimed, “We protected your rights.” He continued to address the Christian oriented audience by saying, “I don't know how you could be a leader without having faith in God”.
Vivek Ramaswamy received a strong welcome as well as he reiterated that America has lost its way and we are like “bat’s in a cave”, flying blindly and that we need to echo-locate ourselves as to how we go forward and that faith, freedom and family are foundations to do this. When he was done, he didn’t take the traditional “exit stage left” but walked through the crowd with his team, perhaps to show that he is a ‘man of the people.’ Just prior to his speech, Vivek held an impromptu ‘press gaggle’ outside the event hall just before he took the stage, taking questions from the media. He eagerly engaged several media outlets in the crowded hallway. At the presser, I asked Vivek Ramaswamy about the waves of illegal immigration in the U.S. and what he would do to stop it. He was resolute that this is an untenable situation and may be the downfall of our country and he would put the military on the border to end the crisis.
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| Former VP and Presidential candidate Mike Pence File Photo |
It is interesting to note that DeSantis, Pence and Ramaswamy didn’t really go after other GOP candidates at the event, including Donald Trump. Perhaps they realized that attacking Trump in front of the conservative Christian crowd wasn’t a good idea and didn’t want to invoke any boos or negative response from the attendees. We have seen this happen before at other event’s like Chris Christie at the first debate and Will Hurd at Iowa’s Lincoln Day Dinner in July and was a bad look for them among conservative voters. Trump did say that without Trump’s support DeSantis would not have been elected Governor, but in total Trump took a softer approach than usual. Trump came into the event with a 44 point lead over DeSantis in the Real Clear Politics average of the last nine GOP Presidential polls.
My interaction with the people who came to the Pray Vote Stand Summit was uplifting and the event was an oasis of positive energy in a tumultuous time of uncertainty for our country and the world, a welcome sight regardless of anyone’s religious beliefs as we navigate through murky waters.