“I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican — in that order,” Vice President Mike Pence told a crowd of 250 assembled Iowa evangelicals, pleasing words to a voting bloc President Trump must hold if he is to be reelected in November.
The remarks were made Thursday morning during an Evangelicals for Trump event in Sioux City, Pence’s first stop on the way to join Trump at a Des Moines Keep America Great rally the same evening.
Thursday’s events are part of several bus tours Pence has embarked on ahead of Trump rallies in key states.
[Read more: Mike Pence hits the road to pitch Trump policies: 12,000 miles, eight states]
White Evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016, but an article in Christianity Today last month excoriating the president and urging Christians to break with him suggested the potential for trouble. Trump soon after launched the Evangelicals for Trump coalition.
Arriving at Country Celebrations Event Center on Thursday in a blue bus plastered with a photo of himself and Trump, Pence made the case to Trump allies that they should stick with the president.
“When this president stands up to the radical Democrats’ three years of resistance and obstruction and their partisan impeachment, we stand with Donald Trump.”
Applause rang out when Pence talked of the strike that killed Iran’s Quds Force Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
“Under President Donald Trump, if the world knows nothing else, the world knows this: America stands with Israel,” he said. “I believe Donald Trump is the greatest friend of Israel to ever sit in the Oval Office.”
The event opened with remarks from controversial pastor Robert Jeffress, whom the vice president described as “a mentor and a cherished friend” after taking the stage.
Dallas, Texas, megachurch leader Jeffress drew controversy after remarks he made in 2010 surfaced during a prayer he gave at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Jeffress said that adherents of Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism would go to hell. A White House spokesman said at the time that Trump did not agree that Jews were going to hell, as Jeffress claimed.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds criticized “socialist” Democrats who have descended on Des Moines ahead of next week’s Democratic caucus events. “They’re talking about open borders, the ‘Green New Deal,’ they want your guns, government-run health care, and abortions on demand. And their favorite word is free,” he said.
“Iowa and America need four more years of President Donald Trump in the White House,” Pence said.
Pence’s comment prompted a “four more years” chant from the crowd. The vice president received a standing ovation as he finished his remarks.
