From the outset of his unlikely candidacy, there was speculation that Trump, the thrice-married, former pro-choice Democrat, would have trouble winning over religious conservatives. But as more (white) Protestant leaders and laypeople have moved toward Trump during and after the primaries, Mormons haven’t budged.
Trump hopes that the members of his evangelical advisory board and his pick of the self-described “evangelical Catholic” Mike Pence as his running mate will bring evangelical and Mormon “values voters” into his coalition. Many Mormon voters share the same pro-life, anti-gay marriage beliefs as other religious Republicans (a fact that Romney tried to exploit in 2012 by presenting himself as a “culture warrior”). Yet the values of the evangelicals backing Trump don’t exactly align with what Utah’s Republican Gov. Gary Herbert—another Mormon who has publicly opposed Trump—has described as “Utah values.”
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