This article was first published in On the Trail 2024 Bulletin. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox on Tuesday and Friday mornings here. To submit a question to next week’s Friday Mailbag, email onthetrail@deseretnews.com.
Hello and welcome to On the Trail 2024, the Deseret News campaign newsletter. My name is Samuel Benson, national political correspondent from Deseret.
Here is our latest election coverage for 2024:
The big idea
By their fruits you will vote for them
Vivek Ramaswamy is taking a big gamble in his effort to win over conservative Christian voters. Instead of downplaying his Hindu faith, he uses it as both a defense and a bludgeon – accusing another candidate’s conversion to Christianity as a political ploy.
Both sides of Ramaswamy’s strategy were on display Wednesday in a CNN town hall in Iowa. One attendee asked him how he responds to skeptical voters, many of whom believe his Hinduism “is not what our founding fathers founded our country on.”
Ramaswamy offered a measured response, just as he did again and again when asked about his faith. He emphasized the values he shares with many evangelical Christians: a belief in God, a recognition of the divinity of every human being, a conservative social view of the world. He acknowledged that he might not see things the same way as some voters: “Would I be the best president to spread Christianity in this country? I wouldn’t,” he admitted. “But I also don’t think that’s the task of the American president.”
As the campaign progressed, Ramaswamy – a Hindu – became more adept at addressing his faith. He is the first Hindu to run for the Republican nomination for president, and Iowa voters are increasingly interested in Ramaswamy’s religion. Nearly two-thirds of likely participants in the Iowa caucus are evangelical Christians. Less than 1% of Iowans are Hindu. Many of these voters have probably never met a Hindu in their lives, let alone voted for a Hindu.
But even as Ramaswamy used his faith as a surprising commonplace with many voters, he also used it as a form of attack. HAS last week’s debatehe chastised Nikki Haley – the daughter of Indian Sikh immigrants – for converting to Christianity as an adult.
“I don’t question his faith, but I question his authenticity,” he said.
Haley, when given the chance to respond to Ramaswamy’s accusations, declined. “It’s not worth my time to respond to him,” she said.
At City Hall on Wednesday, Ramaswamy appeared to take another veiled jab at Haley, saying he refused to play “political snakes and ladders” by becoming a “false convert” to Christianity. The Ramaswamy campaign did not respond to a request for comment (I asked if this was a reference to Haley).
Haley was raised Sikh and later converted to her white American husband’s Methodist faith. She and her husband gave their children have Punjabi names. Nikki is her middle name.
In recent months, Ramaswamy has referred to her by her birth name, Nimarata Randhawa, and implied that she became a Christian for political reasons.
Does Ramaswamy think questioning another candidate’s faith will make his own faith more sincere? It’s a strange approach, especially since many Christian voters already seem skeptical of Ramaswamy’s faith.
According to a new Deseret News/HarrisX poll of American voters, less than a third of Republican voters (31%) think Ramaswamy is a “person of faith”; even fewer (23%) think it “religious”.
In a separate Deseret News/HarrisX poll from Septembera quarter of evangelical voters say Ramaswamy’s religious affiliation makes them less likely to vote for him.
He hired two former Latter-day Saint missionaries to run his campaign in Iowa. Both campaigned for Mitt Romney, when the former presidential candidate struggled to assuage Iowa evangelicals’ concerns about his Latter-day Saint faith.
Now he’s resorting to questioning another candidate’s religious beliefs, hoping voters will view him as more pious. Voters will decide if it works.
Weekend readings
The Republicans’ best argument against Donald Trump was it: he will not beat Joe Biden. He is too old, too chaotic and too criminal to win a general election. Suddenly this argument looks awfully flimsy, thanks to a series of national polls that show Biden trailing Trump by significant margins. We’re 11 months away from Election Day, but the time has come for Republicans to find a replacement for Trump — and these polls don’t support their cause. The Republican Party’s most powerful anti-Trump argument has evaporated (Rich Lowry, Politico)
Presidential candidates like to quote Abraham Lincoln. But do they really understand it? Probably not, according to this essay. While Lincoln called for civic charity, compromise, and compassion, today’s politicians too often fight as if it were a zero-sum battle, us versus them. Some interesting information here: Learn from Lincoln (Matthieu Schmitz, Compact Magazine)
Biden loses support of the Arab-American community for its loyalty to Israel. As Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza continues, the Biden administration is pushing Benjamin Netanyahu to back down and present a clear strategy. But that may not be enough to save already burned bridges with many Arab Americans who support Biden, who view the president’s allegiance to Israel as a betrayal: In Michigan, anger over Biden’s position on the war between Israel and Hamas could cost him votes: “We will be silent in November 2024” (Ed O’Keefe, CBS News)
Friday mailbag
Today’s question comes from Mike C.:
Investigations follow one another concerning the Trump/Biden presidential campaign. Given the number of Americans opposed to both candidates, where is the survey aimed at studying the scenario of voters on both sides pulling toward the middle?
Good question, Mike. Here are two surveys that might interest you:
First, a survey of the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, released this week, shows that no one is really excited about a Trump/Biden rematch. A majority of American adults would be “very” or “somewhat” dissatisfied if Biden won the Democratic nomination (56% say so) or if Trump won the Republican nomination (58% say so).
Second, an October poll by GallupThis shows that 63% of American adults think the two major parties are doing “such a poor job” of representing the American people that “a third major party is necessary.”
On paper, there appears to be a huge opening for a third-party or independent candidate. We have reported on several of them. We welcomed the No Labels CEO and National Director at our office and talked about their strategy. We interviewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And Cornel West. But the two major parties hold a monopoly on American politics, and history shows that voters often don’t check the familiar boxes on Election Day, even though early polls show otherwise.
This will of course not stop us from reporting on these other campaigns – we are committed to helping our readers be the most informed voters possible.
See you on the track.
Samuel
Editor’s Note: The Deseret News has been committed to covering in-depth issues related to the 2024 presidential race since publication. unique perspective and editorial values. Our team of political journalists will bring you in-depth coverage of the most relevant news and information to help you make an informed decision. Find our complete coverage of the election here.
