Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council speaks during the 2011 Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana June 18, 2011.
Leading conservative activist and prominent Ted Cruz supporter Tony Perkins says social conservatives should be “open” to voting for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and argues that any third-party candidate would likely put a Democrat in the White House.
As #NeverTrump conservatives have started the hunt for a viable candidate to step in and launch a bid as a third-party alternative to Trump and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, many believe the political climate is ripe with enough anti-Trump and anti-Hillary animus to make a third-party run viable.
But Perkins, president of the Washington D.C.-based social conservative organization Family Research Council, disagrees, noting that history has proven third-party runs simply do not work.
“I’ve learned never to say never,” Perkins told The Christian Post, speaking of the #NeverTrump movement. “I just would challenge people to point to a situation or an election where that worked. In fact, since 1992 when there was the last legitimate attempt with Ross Perot, the parties have made it harder for that to happen.”
“We are essentially a two-party system,” Perkins continued. “I think that is just going to ensure that Bernie [Sanders] or Hillary, whoever is the nominee for the Democrats, wins the White House in my view.”
Just because it looks as though Trump is going to win the GOP nomination doesn’t mean social conservatives and evangelicals must automatically support Trump. But Perkins argues they must give Trump the opportunity to win their support, instead of saying they will “never” vote for him.
“We are not an appendage of the Republican Party, so we don’t have to just support whoever the Republican nominee is. I just think a lot of energy will go into trying to get a third-party candidate with very little chance of success,” Perkins said. “I am open to Donald Trump if he is open to working to gain the support of the evangelical community.”
Although Trump has gotten some evangelical supporters, most notably Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. and Dallas megachurch Pastor Robert Jeffress, Perkins explains that Trump has much more work to do when it comes to gaining the support of true, churchgoing evangelicals.
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SOURCE: SAMUEL SMITH
Christian Post
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