Evangelical Activists Make a Play for More Iowa Voters
Evangelical activists with the American Renewal Project are stepping up their efforts to get more conservative Christians in Iowa registered to vote and involved in government.
A church-based voter registration drive is scheduled for three Sundays this month - Sept. 15, Sept. 22 and Sept. 29, organizers told The Des Moines Register.
“It’s going to be a continual effort to be in the state,” said Steve Michael, national field director for the “Stand Up Sundays” series.
Campaigns and other outside groups often parachute in then disband after the election, Michael said, but the American Renewal Project intends to organize here steadily until the 2014 election.
For seven years, David Lane, the charismatic founder of the American Renewal Project, has sunk time in Iowa developing a network of conservative pastors. The Iowa Renewal Project began in fall 2006, and was the catalyst for the 2010 campaign that removed three Iowa Supreme Court who authored the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the state.
In July, Lane, a 58-year-old Californian, gathered about 650 Iowa evangelicals in downtown Des Moines for a two-day, all-expenses-paid forum, featuring two top-name GOP politicians — U.S. Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, both born-again Christians.
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