Since becoming an evangelical Christian in college, Laura Robinson has also called herself a Republican. But after watching the video of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump making lewd comments about groping women, she took to Facebook to announce that she couldn’t vote Republican this year.
“How can we support someone who’s so derogatory towards women?” Ms. Robinson, a 32-year-old mother of three from Raleigh, N.C., said in an interview.
Mr. Trump’s candidacy has divided conservative Christians across the country from the start, with spiritual leaders, evangelical college campuses, church communities and families who had voted Republican for decades split over whether to back him. Those divisions have grown deeper following the video and other allegations of sexual misconduct, which Mr. Trump denies.
But Mr. Trump is now facing a vocal backlash from one of the most faithful blocs in the Republican fold: evangelical Christian women.
Mr. Trump’s support among white evangelical women stood at 58% in mid-October, down from the nearly 77% who voted for Mitt Romney four years ago, according to a poll from the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit organization, conducted after the video. More than 70% of white evangelical men still support Mr. Trump.
Conservative Christian women aren’t turning away from Mr. Trump quietly, either. A growing number—from well-known authors to stay-at-home moms—are openly speaking out in opposition to the Republican nominee, denouncing him on social media and sharing their own stories of sexual assault.
Categories: America, Christianity, The Muslim Times, USA, Women