Evangelical Christians have become such a dominant force in the Republican party, it’s hard to imagine a time when they were not politically engaged.
But it wasn’t until the mid-1970s that they began to organize. And it wasn’t a Republican who got them started; it was a Democrat, Jimmy Carter.
Carter’s 1976 presidential bid put his faith in a national spotlight when he identified himself as a born-again Christian.
That phrase resonated with evangelical voters, who were pleased to hear a presidential candidate talk openly about his faith. Their votes played a key role in Carter’s victory.
That alliance was short-lived. Many evangelical voters found President Carter’s policies too liberal, and shifted their support to conservative preachers, like the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who supported so-called family values and opposed abortion and gay rights.
Falwell rode the growth of televangelism, turning his millions of viewers into the Moral Majority, a force that put Ronald Reagan in the White House in 1980.
Since then, evangelicals have played a dominant role in the rise of conservative Republicans and are a mainstay in the political base of Donald Trump.