A new group of pastors is quietly sizing up 2024 hopefuls and serving as self-proclaimed “vetters” for any candidate who wishes to win Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Faith Wins, a nonprofit organization based in South Carolina, has assembled a group of five Iowa pastors who are already months into meeting with and vetting presidential candidates.
Since February, they’ve privately hosted most of the top Republican hopefuls: former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC. And some candidates, including DeSantis, Scott and Ramaswamy, have already met with the pastors several times.
Since 1972, election schedules have placed Iowa as the first state in the country to vote in Republican primary contents, making it an early — and essential — battleground for candidates to win.
Over the past 50 years, no one has ever finished worse than third in Iowa and gone on to win the GOP nomination. And in order to win Iowa, candidates must win the evangelical vote — in 2016, evangelicals made up 64% of voters who showed up on caucus day.
Which makes the role of evangelical pastors — who parishioners look toward as moral guides — even more important. Several pastors involved with Faith Wins emphasized that they will never tell their congregants who to vote for, but they reserve the right to say who they believe will govern with a “biblical worldview” and who will not.
Read more about the unique access these pastors get to presidential candidates.