Jacob Ogles
As Gov. Ron DeSantis runs for President, he’s discussing his Catholic faith more openly than ever before. He will court evangelicals at the annual conference of the Faith & Freedom Coalition this weekend.
It’s a shift from a political leader who until recently kept private his church-going habits, but recently revealed he takes his family to various churches for mass in the Tallahassee area.
DeSantis more openly discussed his Catholicism last week in a Christian Broadcasting Network interview.
“God has a plan for you, I still believe that,” he told interviewer David Brody at the time.
While his spiritual revelations have been dismissed by critics as cynical — “I think it’s convenient timing, to be honest,” former U.S. Rep. David Jolly told The Orlando Sentinel — it also shows the critical role religious voters could play in the Presidential Election.
Notably, DeSantis hopes to face another Catholic, President Joe Biden, next year. Biden is only the second Catholic to serve as President, behind President John Kennedy in 1960. DeSantis would be the third.
But he obviously has a sharply different view of governance. DeSantis has leaned in heavily on culture war issues as he runs for the Republican presidential nomination. Pew Research says more than a third of voters consider themselves evangelical, and 56% of those who do vote Republican.
Never Back Down Press Secretary David Vasquez told the Sentinel DeSantis supporters feel confident the Governor will find success with those voters.
“Evangelicals are uniting behind Ron DeSantis because they know the Governor’s policies and family values are in line with their own beliefs,” Vasquez said. “We’ve seen Gov. DeSantis prioritize meeting, listening, and praying with church leaders across the country and they recognize him as a leader governing as a man of faith.”
But Jolly said candidates like former Vice President Mike Pence, himself an evangelical Christian, better speak the language of the voting bloc.
“Evangelicals are his lane. He knows the underpinnings of the evangelical community and he reflects their language and beliefs,” Jolly told the Sentinel. “Ron DeSantis doesn’t. It’s just never been part of his public profile.”
But DeSantis is prepared to say he has the policies that evangelicals support. He signed a law banning abortion after six weeks in Florida.
Former President Donald Trump, DeSantis’ chief rival for the nomination, appointed the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and made that law possible. However, Trump has criticized Florida’s measure as going too far.
But DeSantis defended the law and slammed Trump’s stance during his CBN interview.
“These are children with detectable heartbeats,” DeSantis said. “And I think to do that was very humane and I think it was something that every pro-lifer appreciates that we were able to get that done.”
12 comments
DeSantis is Satan spawn
June 23, 2023 at 11:23 am
Ron DeSantis is as far from Christianity as you can get. There’s nothing worse than a person that uses God to prop themselves up or try to score points, especially in the political world. Everything he does is non-Christian.
RD’24
June 23, 2023 at 5:34 pm
Ron DeSantis is going to win the Republican nomination. He is smart, measured, moored to principle and his Catholic faith. He does not back down.
Which is why the media guns for him everyday. They know he can beat Joe Biden or any D.
Can anyone in journalism, including the FL Politics blog, please explain why the most left of center, 1 term wonder in Congress, David Jolly, who was beat even by CHARLIE CRIST is ever contacted for his opinion about any Republican issue?
It’s comical it’s so ridiculous. No one has ever cared what David Jolly thinks, when he was elected and certainly not after he was defeated. He was so bad as a lefty R, he was beat by Crist who was by then a Democrat. You can’t make this stuff up.
Hey let’s call David Jolly for a quote he knows. Hilarious!
PeterH
June 23, 2023 at 11:38 am
It’s called pandering!
Dont Say FLA
June 23, 2023 at 11:48 am
Their Catholicism certainly explains why Rhonda thinks everybody’s out to molest children. I could feel sorry for Rhonda except they’re such a raging dickhead to everyone on Earth, and it’s all about trying to get over whatever terrible thing(s) happened to Rhonda as a Catholic child.
Joe
June 23, 2023 at 12:10 pm
Groomers of a feather fly together.
Michael K
June 23, 2023 at 2:09 pm
The real groomers, as we know, wear clerical robes – Southern Baptists and Catholics in particular. DeSantis values are not “family values,” he only uses religion to advance his personal political ambition.
At the end of the day, one’s persona religious beliefs or non-religous beliefs have nothing do with governance – unless they intend to turn America into a theocracy. In that case, DeSantis or anyone like him should not be allowed to get anywhere near the White House.
I’m glad to see movement for “religious liberty” to include religious traditions that support a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, the acceptance of human equality and diversity – and those faith traditions that refuse to demean and cause harm to human beings on the basis of who they love or the color of their skin.
Groomers For DeSaster
June 23, 2023 at 3:10 pm
Christian groomers running church and complaining about overreach…
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Felicia Bruce
June 23, 2023 at 4:06 pm
As an educated woman I recognize the difference between a seed and a flower, between an egg and a chicken. I know that an electrical impulse is not the equivalent of a heartbeat.
As a woman of faith and an ordained minister I have counseled women (and their families) about ending pregnancy.
Being faithful and pro- choice are not mutually exclusive nor contradictory.
Even the Pope has told Catholics to respect pro choice advocates.And he has advocated an end to the death penalty. And the closure of places like Guantanimo . And to fight hunger. And promoted medical care for all God’s children.
Clearly the Governor of Florida picks and chooses which part of Catholicism he wants to promote and force upon others.
A man’s ability to control every woman’s internal organs is egregiously wrong, decidedly un-democratic and should not be condoned.
TJC
June 24, 2023 at 12:07 pm
Well written, and a breath of fresh air here to read it.
Jake
June 25, 2023 at 12:03 pm
Right on!
DNA With Crime Built In
June 24, 2023 at 6:37 am
‘Evangelicals’ can be counted on for one thing; becoming a prisoner.
Born jailbirds, each Qristian will end up in a cell one day. Keep building prisons, for they are not practicing abstinence.
@BillyBamboozler on Twitter
June 26, 2023 at 8:33 am
These religious whackos shouldn’t be allowed in government. They create social disaster and they’re fascist.
Comments are closed.