Here's an article on the power of religious conservatives in Iowa.
I was there when the religious right in Iowa first flexed their electoral muscles, revealing the strength of their years of patient, persistent organizing. That was 1988...when Pat Robertson nearly won the GOP caucuses. The minister of the Evangelical Free Church my family attended was the country chairman for Jack Kemp for President. But, certainly Robertson had a lock on the local Pentacostals and conservative charismatics.
From the article:
It was religious conservatives who propelled Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the Christian Coalition, to a second-place finish in Iowa's 1988 GOP caucus, ahead of then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. They also were responsible for conservative pundit Pat Buchanan's surge in 1996, holding Republican front-runner Bob Dole to a surprisingly narrow victory.
I would have called myself a Republican and conservative at the time, though I wasn't old enough to vote, and was truthfully enamored less by any particular ideology than by politics as a whole. I enjoyed going from event to event to meet the candidates. Growing up in Iowa allows for that. (I even pitched horseshoes with George H. W. Bush once.)
It's interesting to hear this assessment from the article:
"Religious conservatives and social conservatives in the Republican Party are like the driver's education instructor," said [Drake University political science professor Dennis] Goldford. "He has a brake, but he doesn't have a steering wheel or an accelerator. They can pretty well say who is not going to be the nominee."
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