The host of an Iowa event that will feature six of the candidates running for the GOP’s next presidential nomination says the race is wide open. Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader, has hosted Donald Trump at two of the group’s previous Family Leadership Summits in 2013 and 2015.
“I think the former president has a 20-30 percent self-inflicted ceiling,” Vander Plaats says. “I think that’s going to be his top, which means there’s 70-80% of people still willing to be moved. I think people are intrigued by DeSantis, by Scott, by Haley, by Ramaswamy, by Pence. There’s a lot of them — Asa Hutchinson. There’s a very good field there.”
The candidates Vander Plaats listed are the six who’ll speak tomorrow at the Family Leadership Summit he’s hosting in Des Moines. Trump turned down an invitation to join the group.
Vander Plaats, an influential leader in the evangelical Christian movement, endorsed Republicans Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz prior to their victories in the last three competitive Iowa Caucuses. Vander Plaats says he’s concerned about having Trump as the GOP’s presidential nominee in 2024. “You can thank him for all the good things that he’s done and he’s done a lot of good things, but I’m too concerned that America has made up their mind on the former president and they’re kind of exhausted about all the issues of the past when they want to have a compelling vision that will win for the future.”
This week Vander Plaats has said it was “not very smart” for Trump to “go after” Governor Kim Reynolds for remaining neutral and not endorsing a candidate before the Iowa Caucuses. To avoid the 2016 scenario that saw Trump emerge from a field of 16 Republican candidates, Vander Plaats says he’s encouraged this cycle’s dozen or so candidates to evaluate their chances and step aside if it’s not their time.
“Being a former accounting teacher, I understand the power of division and so the more candidates that are in, the more likely it is that Trump will be the nominee,” Vander Plaats says. “…Whenever I have a chance to visit with them, most of them will tell me God has called them to run for president and then I use scripture and I say: ‘God also tells us in scripture that there’s wisdom in a host of counselors’ and so if your counselors aren’t approving that call, then you need to make a tough decision.”
Vander Plaats made his comments during a recent appearance on Iowa Press on Iowa PBS.