Evangelical voters changed their minds, according to R. Marie Griffith, director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, because they feel strongly about social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion and do not want Hillary Clinton to appoint Supreme Court justices.
“Trump speaks to the profound fears animating so many white evangelicals today,” Griffith said. “Above all, the fear that they and their values are being displaced by foreign, immigrant and Muslim forces as well as by domestic movements such as Black Lives Matter, gay rights, women’s rights and more.” Even among evangelical Christians not motivated by that sweeping set of concerns — and Chris Nickels, for example, praised South Carolina’s decision last year to stop displaying the Confederate flag — a change in the Supreme Court that would far outlast any presidential administration is incentive to vote strategically.
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