AMES, IOWA—Volunteers and paid staff members worked for competing presidential campaigns at the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday, many of them from Iowa Regular Baptist Churches, as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the fund-raising event.
“I think half of my church is here,” remarked Pastor Pat Nemmers of Saylorville Baptist Church, Saylorville, Iowa.
Prior to the event, an ABC/Washington Post poll showed that only 19 percent of likely Iowa GOP caucusgoers were enthusiastic about their options. Final numbers at the event seemed to support this. On Saturday, there was an estimated 26,000 tickets sold to participants who wandered around the food and entertainment tents, but only 14,302 went home with a purple thumb print from the voting captains.
Regardless of party affiliation, the lower attendance seemed to be a metaphor for possible voter apathy among the social conservatives who populate Regular Baptist churches. Enjoying the free food and entertainment is one thing—actually participating in the process entirely another.
Christine Trahms, special projects coordinator for the Iowa Mitt Romney campaign, noted this when saying, “It’s been a frustration of mine, because Christians often don’t know about the candidates.” Trahms added, “I don’t push politics at my church, but as people come to me, I tell them where the candidates stand.”
- See the upcoming October issue of the Baptist Bulletin for a full report of Regular Baptists who are involved in Iowa Presidential campaigns of Gov. Mitt Romney, Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Rep. Duncan Hunter.
