The response to Fikes’ endorsement of Clinton has been mixed, to say the least. Among the many evangelicals for whom opposition to abortion is the single standard by which they assess a candidate, support for Clinton, who has been consistently pro-choice, amounted to apostasy. “Your organization doesn’t represent me or other Christians,” wrote a woman on Facebook. But Fikes said her public statement elicited a wave of private applause. “I’ve had many more evangelicals than you would realize email me and tell me and text me and say, ‘You are doing the right thing. I’m proud of you. I wish I could do it.”
During an election in which the evangelical right has bitterly split over its support for the Republican nominee, revealing to many both inside and outside the Christian conservative community a preference for political expedience over moral authority, Fikes’ campaign to peel away evangelicals looks less crazy than it might normally seem. Trump’s waffling views on abortion have made many conservatives wonder where his views really lie, and the parade of women who have emerged to accuse him of sexual misconduct has clearly appalled others, including students at Liberty University who signed an open letter rebuking their president, Jerry Falwell Jr., for his continued support of Trump after his “Access Hollywood” outing. Trump, the students argued, had boasted about behavior that would get faculty and staff at his university fired.
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