A remarkable evangelical leader in Iowa, Bob Vander Plaats, stated he doesn’t think the latest survey indicating evangelical people continue to back former President Trump is credible.
“I don’t believe them, and there’s a reason I don’t believe them—because it does not match up at all to what I’m hearing on the ground,” Vander Plaats said on Thursday to The Washington Post.
Although he acknowledged that Iowa political pollster Ann Selzer has made mistakes in the past, he expressed his admiration for her.
More than a month has passed since Vander Plaats supported Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), who is still trailing the former president in both state and national surveys.
Decision Desk HQ, which just teamed with The Hill, reports that the most current polling indicates that Trump leads with 54 percent of Iowa voters, with DeSantis receiving only 17 percent of the vote.
Trump is still the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination, but according to Vander Plaats, his numbers are “much closer to the low 40s.”
He declared,I don’t think he’s got a 30-point lead.” “And I think there’s plenty of time to make that up.”
He expressed his opinion that there is no difference between evangelicals who back Trump and those who oppose the outgoing president.
According to Vander Plaats, CEO of the Christian organization The Family Leader in Iowa, evangelical Iowa voters are leaning toward Trump rather than DeSantis since the former president is well-known and has “100% name ID.” “He did things that they remember. And so you’re not going to leave him until you’re sold on somebody,” he said.
He continued by saying that a portion of the evangelical community, “which I fully understand,” wants a disruptor.“
According to Vander Plaats, who has “been a buddy of Trump for 12 years,” he told the Post,. Despite having voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020, Vander Plaats told The Blaze that he has never backed the former president after the latter criticized him for promoting his competitor.