Tony Perkins Refutes Claim That Biden is a ‘More Acceptable’ Presidential Candidate for Christian Voters in 2020
Former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden (R) prays with community leaders at Bethel AME in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 1, 2020. | Biden for President/Adam Schultz
Prominent evangelical activist and pastor Tony Perkins has pushed back against the claim that Joe Biden is a “more acceptable” presidential candidate for Christians in 2020 than President Donald Trump as the Biden campaign positions itself to appeal to evangelicals.
Perkins, the head of Family Research Council, a leading social conservative lobbying organization in Washington, D.C., responded to the recent news that the former vice president has hired former Republican Josh Dickson to oversee his campaign’s national faith engagement.
The hiring of Dickson, who reportedly became a Democrat because of his evangelical faith and worked on President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, is an attempt by the Biden campaign to win over faith-based voters. Trump continues to paint himself as a champion for Christians as he touts fulfillment of campaign promises related to abortion, religious liberty and judicial nominations.
With exit polls showing that over 8 in 10 white evangelical voters voted for Trump in 2016 and only 16% voted for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, there’s been speculation in the media about whether the devout Catholic Biden can attract a higher percentage of conservative-leaning and moderate Christian voters in 2020 as many may be wary of Trump’s divisive tactics.
In an op-ed posted to the FRC website, Perkins, who has participated in events at the Trump White House, called Biden’s new strategy of trying to attract faith voters an ambitious strategy that involves “trying to win over a group of people [he’s] spent the last several years insulting.”
“Maybe Joe Biden, a self-identified Catholic, is personally spiritual. But ‘authentic?’” Perkins asked.
“Surely, no one who’s followed his four-decade career could conclude that Biden shares Christians’ values where it matters: in the public arena. And yet even Dickson himself tried to sell the former vice president as the real deal because he ‘love[s] our neighbor‘ and ‘care[s] for the poor and vulnerable.’
As Biden is endorsed by the lobbying arm of the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, for his support for abortion rights, Perkins asked whether Biden considers “children in the womb” vulnerable as well.
“This is [a] man running on a vision, not only of abortion-on-demand, but abortion right up until — and perhaps after — birth,” he stressed. “To cap it off, for those Americans who do have a biblical or moral objection to abortion, he says they should still have to pay for them with their tax dollars. How does he square ‘authentic’ faith with those radical positions?”
Biden’s views on abortion have evolved through the years, along with the shifting views of the Democratic Party. As a Delaware senator, Biden supported legislation barring the federal government from providing funding for abortion. But he altered his stance on the Hyde Amendment last year after officially announcing his candidacy.
