{"id":332,"date":"2008-02-08T09:25:16","date_gmt":"2008-02-08T09:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/02\/the-mormon-factor-a-romneyesqu.html"},"modified":"2008-02-08T09:25:16","modified_gmt":"2008-02-08T09:25:16","slug":"the-mormon-factor-a-romneyesqu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/the-mormon-factor-a-romneyesqu.html","title":{"rendered":"The Mormon Factor: a Romneyesque View"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"romney18.jpg\"Gary Marx, the conservative coalitions director for Mitt Romney, spearheaded the campaign\u2019s outreach to the conservative Christian community. After Romney withdrew from the race yesterday, God-o-Meter asked Marx how big the so-called Mormon factor was in stopping Romney candidacy:<\/p>\n

It was ultimately less a factor than I thought it would be because of the College Station, Texas [“Faith in America”] speech was so successful. It didn\u2019t play out in the media after that. It came up as something that was stirred up in places by the other campaigns.
\nAt the same time, Huckabee was able to be successful in his brand of identity politics because there was a group of people who were looking for an alternative [to Romney].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For what it’s worth, God-o-Meter agrees. Yes, the Mormon factor helped do Romney in, Huckabee’s presence makes it impossible to isolate Mormonism as a variable. It’s a lot easier for evangelicals to take Romney’s Mormonism into account when there’s a clear evangelical alternative, when the choices aren’t just Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, or Mitt Romney.
\nSince Romney’s planning to run again in 2012, God-o-Meter asked whether it wasn\u2019t likely that another evangelical candidate would be able to benefit from the \u201cMormon factor.\u201d After all, Huck isn\u2019t the only Republican evangelical candidate of recent cycles. Remember Pat Robertson in 1988? Gary Bauer in 2000? George W. Bush more recently? \u201cIt\u2019s totally different when you\u2019re running against pastor,\u201d Marx said, \u201cwho\u2019s preaching from a different pulpit each Sunday.\u201d
\nNo doubt about that. Of course, if you\u2019re a Mormon running to be the candidate of the GOP\u2019s evangelical base, you\u2019re going to meet some serious resistance, whether facing a Baptist preacher like Huckabee or not. Perhaps 2012 will present another test of whether it\u2019s possible to overcome that resistance.<\/p>\n


\n9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Marx, the conservative coalitions director for Mitt Romney, spearheaded the campaign\u2019s outreach to the conservative Christian community. After Romney withdrew from the race yesterday, God-o-Meter asked Marx how big the so-called Mormon factor was in stopping Romney candidacy: It was ultimately less a factor than I thought it would be because of the College…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mitt-romney"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Mormon Factor: a Romneyesque View - God-O-Meter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/the-mormon-factor-a-romneyesqu.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Mormon Factor: a Romneyesque View - God-O-Meter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gary Marx, the conservative coalitions director for Mitt Romney, spearheaded the campaign\u2019s outreach to the conservative Christian community. 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