The "outsiders" had their way in the GOP's Super Tuesday contests, and observers say the face of the Republican Party may be changing for good – in large part, with the help of evangelical voters.Senator Bernie Sanders took his home state of Vermont and pulled off a bit of a surprise in Oklahoma and Colorado; other than that it was all Hillary Clinton. On the GOP side, it was much the same for Donald Trump, who took the vast majority of the states up for grabs, including Virginia. (See wrap-up of Super Tuesday voting.) But Family Leader's Victoria Cobb says the mandate there might not be as strong as some think.
"The fact that nearly two-thirds of Virginians voted for anybody but Trump, I think tells you that it's not as clear and clean as people would like to make this race out to be," says Victoria Cobb, president of the Virginia-based Family Foundation. "The bottom line is there are simply too many candidates in this race."
Cobb, Virginia (Family Foundation - Virginia)And while it's too early to choose between Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Cobb says there are others in the race she would like to see yield. "I do think tonight sends a message that there are two candidates who simply are not pulling large enough percentages – and I do think that they are affecting the race," she adds:
Read: Cruz asks for alliance after most voters choose TrumpCruz took his home state of Texas as expected and also pulled off a mild upset in Oklahoma. First Liberty Institute's Kelly Shackelford is president and CEO of First Liberty Institute (formerly Liberty Institute), based in Plano, TX. He says the success of the outsiders should send a message to the Republican Party.
Shackelford
"They took over the House and the Senate in record numbers [in 2014] and then they did nothing; they're not even willing to fight," Shackelford tells OneNewsNow. "I think the frustration level [among voters] and really the betrayal [they feel] is so high."
The attorney has a word for voters who might be thinking they can't bring themselves to vote for Donald Trump come November. "That's the most important thing about this election: it just won't just matter for four years," he predicts. "It will very easily probably matter for the next 30 to 40 years."
The faithful voting out of fear, frustrationTony Perkins of Family Research Council agrees with Shackelford about voter frustration in the GOP ranks, saying evangelical voters can be counted among the disaffected. They're upset, says Perkins, that Republicans in Washington refused to take the fight against Planned Parenthood to President Obama, and that they didn't fight hard enough for marriage. In addition, they're lashing out because they are concerned about issues like the economy and national defense, he offers.
"[I think] many evangelicals ... are operating out of fear and frustration rather than faith and reason," he continues. "We have several good Christian candidates in this race who are deserving of evangelical support – and I would think that they would be first in line."
Perkins
The veteran political observer also cautions voters to take what pollsters and the mainstream media call "evangelicals" with a grain of salt. He says those compiling such statistics usually include nominal Christians who haven't necessarily stood up for evangelical values.
"We're finding that that definition is somewhat elastic," he adds, "because it's being stretched and used in ways that it was never intended to be."
Victoria Cobb believes many evangelicals are caught between the realization that their preferred candidate won't get the nomination and the fact that they can't pull the lever for Donald Trump. "I think it's very possible we could have the largest group of evangelicals not voting in the general election than we've seen in years and years," Cobb laments.
She suggests that if evangelicals split with the GOP, it could be a long time before either regains its political clout.
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