Politics & Government

Voter Push from Iowa Pulpits Begins this Month

The evangelical movement, which has helped propel born-again Christians to Iowa Caucus wins, continues to flex its muscle in Iowa politics with voter-registration pushes on three consecutive Sundays.

Evangelical activists are working to keep a foothold in Iowa politics, starting with church-based voter registration drives on three consecutive Sundays, beginning Sept. 15, and continuing through the 2014 election cycle.

The “Stand Up Sundays” series is part of an effort in 11 states by the American Renewal Project to get more evangelical Christians involved in the 2014 election campaign, the Des Moines Register reports.

The plan is to organize steadily through the 2014 election, Steve Michael, a national field director for the campaign, told the newspaper.

Find out what's happening in West Des Moineswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Evangelical Christians are a force in Iowa politics, creating strong coalitions that have given Iowa caucus victories to faith-based candidates like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in 2008 and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum in 2012.  An early favorite, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, won the Iowa Straw Poll after she received the endorsements of about 100 Iowa pastors, but she finished dead last among Republicans actively campaigning in Iowa by the time the caucuses rolled around a half year later.

The group’s founder, Californian David Lane, has been heavily involved in the Iowa Renewal Project since 2006 and developed the network of Iowa pastors who endorsed Bachmann.

Find out what's happening in West Des Moineswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Last month, Lane brought two big Republican names – U.S. Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, both of whom claim to be born-again Christians – to a gathering of 650 evangelicals in Des Moines.

Both called on pastors become more proactive in encouraging their congregations to register to vote and take part in the political process. As part of the campaign, volunteers will distribute paperwork, though Lane told the newspaper it’s up to individual churches to determine how to organize the campaigns locally.

Does It Matter?

Increasingly, there are signs that evangelicals’ influence in the political process is withering.  The Republican National Committee’s own consultants said in a 2012 election “autopsy” report that defeats at the polls result from a perception on the part of some voters that the party is “scary,” “narrow-minded,” “out of touch,” and a party of “stuffy old men.”

That doesn’t appear to be deterring Lane and his organization in Iowa, where he said participation among churches will be “pretty substantial,” according to the Register.

He declined to give an exact number, but said a map shows heavy participation in urban areas as well as across the state.

“There’s no area of the state that doesn’t have pretty significant coverage,” he said.

Lane said that Iowa evangelicals are already registered in high numbers because of the caucuses, so results may seem more anemic than in some of the other targeted states, which include Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.

However, Michael said he is “enthusiastic” about the campaign’s success in Iowa.“I think it’s going to be tremendous for Iowa to increase their voter numbers and make sure people get out to vote on election days,” he told the newspaper.

The Iowa Renewal Project was a driving force in the 2010 campaign that resulted in the removal of three Iowa Supreme Court justices who voted for the unanimous ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in Iowa.

Justice David Wiggins kept his job on the high court when he came up for retention in 2012. Marriage equality advocates said the vote and other wins at the ballot box last November reflected increased acceptance of same-sex marriage.

No justices are on the ballot in 2014, but in 2016 Chief Justice Mark Cady and Daryl Hecht and Brent Appel are up for retention. Cady is the author of Varnum v Brien, the unanimous 2009 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in Iowa.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from West Des Moines