An influential evangelical leader said conservative voters are looking for alternatives to Donald Trump in the 2024 campaign for the White House because the former president presents “our biggest risk of losing.”
Bob Vander Plaats, a staunch conservative who leads the Family Leader organization in Iowa, told CNN’s Dana Bash that “there’s an exhaustion level right now, about a complaint about the past, the continuing indictments and the more indictments coming.”
“People just really, they want to turn the page to the next generational leader, somebody with a fresh vision,” he continued. “And I think Iowa’s wide open for that person to emerge.”
“I believe that the former president, although he’s done a lot of great things, he presents our biggest risk of losing in 2024,” Vander Plaats said. “So therefore, we need to choose, and choose well.”
Vander Plaats has never endorsed Trump, but reportedly voted for him in 2016 and 2020. He endorsed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in 2012 and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in 2016.
The Christian leader wrote an op-ed in October 2020 encouraging his community to support Trump, saying he would vote for the former president despite “misgivings” about his character. Evangelical voters played a key role in Trump’s 2016 victory.
Vander Plaats has become more emphatic in his criticism of Trump in recent months, calling out what he described as repetitive rhetoric, a fixation on the past and a lack of vision for the future.
Trump, who has been indicted three times this year on dozens of felony counts, is nonetheless the front-runner for the Republican nomination, polling significantly ahead of his nearest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Vander Plaats had positive things to say about DeSantis’ chances, despite his struggling campaign, telling Bash the candidate and his wife had accompanied him to church recently and received a warm reception.
Watch the interview below.