Conservatives turn to Trump for cover as 2018 outlook deteriorates | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Conservative leaders, increasingly worried about a challenging 2018 campaign, are intensifying their appeals to evangelical voters frustrated with Washington, warning that failure to support GOP lawmakers in November will imperil Donald Trump and his agenda.

In churches and email solicitations, through voter guides and major conferences, organizations that target Christian conservative voters plan to argue at every turn that the success of Trump’s presidency — and potentially, its very existence — is on the line this year.

“The GOP’s only hope is the president,” said Tony Perkins, the president of the socially conservative Family Research Council, which is active in 15,000 churches across the country.

It’s part of a broader effort to transform Trump’s popularity with the base into votes for Republicans those voters have come to distrust. Indeed, the move to court these core voters comes as leaders of the conservative movement worry about an evangelical enthusiasm gap fueled by a belief among activists that Congress isn’t going far enough in enacting their priorities.

To focus voters’ attention on the midterms — and to stop irritation from becoming apathy following the GOP’s failure to defund Planned Parenthood and repeal Obamacare — officials are turning to increasingly dramatic measures.

Some are discussing putting the issue of impeachment on their issue-based voter guides, a stark reminder of the potential consequences of a Democratic-controlled Congress. And several leaders are plotting a large, splashy evangelical confab in Washington that, Perkins said, Trump may attend.

“We know the base of the [Democratic] Party is not going to accept anything less than a move to impeach and remove President Trump,” said Ralph Reed, the chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, who expects his organization to target between 15 million and 18 million voters in key battleground states and House districts through mail, phone calls, digital advertising and in some places, door-knocking.

“We think people ought to know before they go to the polls, based on the available evidence…would you support the impeachment of President Trump? We think that’s a completely reasonable thing to ask someone and have not ruled out putting it on our voter guides,” he continued, adding that in the Sixth District of Georgia alone, around 500 churches accepted his organization’s voter guides during last year’s special election there.

Meanwhile, Perkins and other conservative officials are planning to invite arbout 1,000 evangelical leaders — and Trump himself — to a gathering in Washington this June (news of an evangelical meeting was first reported by NPR). Two years ago, a similar event took place in New York — but at the time, many attendees walked away still skeptical of the thrice-married Trump who said he had never asked God for forgiveness.

This time around, some of the same figures who were Trump holdouts in the summer of 2016 are his most vocal, unshakeable supporters. It’s a transition that started during the campaign and solidified as Trump appointed conservative judges and signed a religious liberty executive order, while conservatives also circle the wagons around him in the face of strong Democratic opposition.

“It’s going to be more a focus on what has happened, then there will certainly be a call to pray, a call to challenge evangelicals all across the country to vote in the midterm elections,” Perkins said. “It is our agenda that the president has embraced. So it’s more about, ‘Hey, look what’s happened, look what you’ve been able to do, do you want to continue this?’”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, said discussion of Trump’s record on abortion comes up often as her team knocks doors in Senate battleground states to discuss the issue (the organization is currently operating in four states but she expects to be in as many as eight, and to reach 2 million homes by Election Day).

“They are extremely loyal to him because of his follow-through on the commitments,” she said of Trump’s record, also noting the possibility for another vacancy on the Supreme Court, and the ensuing need for another conservative justice to be confirmed. “We are very cognizant of the intensity on the Democratic side, you can’t miss it…but I think that’s why, moving into the midterms, an issue with such intensity like this one, that is backed by follow-through from this president, has the potential to be so powerful.”

Of course, not everyone even in the strongly pro-Trump evangelical movement thinks emphasizing the polarizing president is the right midterms strategy. Some worry that linking him too closely to November efforts would alienate voters.

“There’s a lot of churches who just wouldn’t listen to us, would see us as basically compromised,” said Bob Vander Plaats, an Iowa-based evangelical leader who is influential in Republican presidential caucuses there.

“If we lead with Trump, the church is going to close its doors,” said Vander Plaats, who stressed that he personally roots for Trump’s success. He said the 2018 emphasis should be on candidates who act as “a minister of God into the public arena.”

The socially conservative swirl of activity around embracing Trump comes despite the fact that he is toxic to many liberal and moderate voters, while a progressive base outraged by his presidency is putting a host of longtime Republican seats into play. Meanwhile, a bevy of prominent Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, are retiring — developments many operatives perceive as a reflection of the challenging political environment for Republicans this year.

But if Republicans have any hope of holding onto their congressional majorities in November, conservatives say, they must turn out their base in full force, including in more moderate districts where centrist voters are leery of Trump. The president, they say, is their most effective motivator for that large segment of the party.

“They’ll be coming in 2018, if only because of the magnitude of what’s on the line, and out of a sense of loyalty for how much Trump has delivered on his promises to the faith community,” Reed said.

Penny Nance, the head of the conservative organization Concerned Women for America, says her activists are frustrated with Congress’s sluggishness, in their view, in passing more conservative priorities — especially when it comes to Planned Parenthood.

To motivate them this fall, her organization is also focusing heavily on Trump — especially, for the moment, through email solicitations and other digital activities — despite recent allegations involving Trump’s dealings with a porn star, the latest revelation about his tawdry past.

“It really will be a lot about supporting the Trump agenda,” she said. “It’s very interesting — this voting bloc is so solid for him, the group of women people think are the most prudish. They are very realistic about their politics, and very discerning and thoughtful about political realities, and so it is a winning message.”