Conservative evangelical leaders met privately this week to discuss putting aside their misgivings about John McCain and coalescing around the Republican’s presidential bid while urging him to consider social conservative favourite Mike Huckabee as a running mate.
About 90 of the movement’s leading activists gathered in Denver for a meeting convened by Mathew Staver, who heads the Florida-based legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel.
Many evangelical leaders backed other Republican candidates early on and remain wary of Mr McCain’s commitment to their causes and his previous criticisms of movement leaders.
With the presidential field now set, many evangelical leaders are taking a more pragmatic view, however, realising also that the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, is making a strong play for evangelical voters and talking freely about his faith.
“Our shared core values compel us to unite and choose the presidential candidate that best advances those values,” said Mr Staver, who previously backed Mr Huckabee’s bid.
“That obvious choice is Sen. John McCain. I think people left the meeting in unity the likes of which have not been evident through the primaries.”
The group also agreed to sign a letter urging the McCain campaign to consider Mr Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister, as his vice presidential choice, said another participant, Phil Burress.
Mr Burress, who heads an Ohio group that helped pass an anti-gay marriage measure in that state in 2004, was among a group of conservative Christian leaders who met with Mr McCain last week.
Mr Burress characterised the Huckabee overture as a “suggestion, not a demand”.
“This is a man you don’t threaten,” Mr Burress said of Mr McCain. “His principles are his principles. The last thing you want to do is try to force him to do something he doesn’t want to do because he’d probably do the opposite.”
Mr Burress said that while Mr Huckabee is a favourite of Christian conservatives, the most important thing is that Mr McCain’s running mate be “pro-life and pro-family”.
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Conservative evangelical leaders met privately this week to discuss putting aside their misgivings about John McCain and coalescing around the Republican’s presidential bid while urging him to consider social conservative favourite Mike Huckabee as a running mate.
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