Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a South Dakota Republican Party rally in Rapid City, South Dakota, September 8, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to deliver keynote speeches Friday night at two socially conservative Christian groups’ rallies in Washington, D.C., his first trip to the nation’s capital since he was criminally indicted last month.
Trump’s top Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is also scheduled to speak at summits hosted by the Women for America Legislative Action Committee and the Family Research Council.
The women’s group, which espouses strong opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage and a progressive view of transgender rights, bills itself as the largest women’s public policy organization in the country. The Family Research Council takes a similarly hard line on social issues.
Also scheduled to speak at the CWA event are six Republican senators, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, along with a “pro-life activist” and a “transportation activist.” Among other things.
Three other GOP primary candidates — former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy — have been invited but have not been confirmed to speak, according to the group’s event website.
Both Pence and Ramaswamy are scheduled to speak at the Family Research Council’s “Prayer the Vote” summit.
Women in the Republican Primary
In a different political moment, Trump’s personal burdens regarding women’s issues may be an obstacle for him in the Republican primaries.
One of Trump’s four active criminal cases centers on money paid to silence a porn star who alleges she had an extramarital affair with Trump, which Trump denies.
In May, he was found guilty of He sexually assaulted writer E. Jane Carroll and was ordered to pay $5 million in her civil rape and defamation lawsuit. Trump was also found liable for defaming Carroll in a separate, similar case, which is however scheduled to go to trial in January.
More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct.
Meanwhile, former first lady Melania Trump has been absent from the campaign trail — a stark contrast to Casey DeSantis, who regularly stands by her husband as he crisscrosses key primary states.
Casey DeSantis is also taking a leading role in the “Mamas for DeSantis” campaign, an initiative targeting mothers. The Trump campaign has no clear matching platform: Searches for “women,” “woman,” or “mother” on “Agenda47“The campaign policy page returns no results.
However, national polls of the Republican primary field give Trump a significant lead among men and women.
For example, a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed 58% of Republican or Republican-leaning women support Trump in the presidential primaries, compared to 64% of their male counterparts.
Only 14% of women in the same group chose DeSantis, while 5% chose the former UN ambassador. Nikki Haley, the only woman running for the Republican nomination.
The poll also showed that while Trump and President Joe Biden are on edge overall, the Democratic incumbent holds a double-digit lead over Trump among registered female voters: 56% said they would choose Biden in the election against Trump, who was chosen. By 37% of respondents.
Part of this divide may be attributable to the role Trump played in last year’s highly significant Supreme Court decision, which struck down the constitutional right to abortion that Roe v. Wade had upheld for nearly half a century.
All three conservative justices appointed by Trump voted to overturn Roe. The ruling immediately became a rallying cry for Democrats, who continue to exceed expectations in the 2022 midterm elections.
A large majority of US adults still say they disagree with the court’s recent, highly unpopular decision Surveys I showed.
But the women’s group Trump is addressing on Friday did so forcefully He cheered Penny Nance, the group’s president, called the decision “a major victory for human rights and life.”
Trump case in DC
Trump was last in D.C. in early August to be indicted on federal charges stemming from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the four-count indictment charging him and several co-conspirators with illegally committing three criminal conspiracies to try to subvert the election results. He was arraigned in federal court just a few minutes’ walk from the US Capitol, which was the scene of the January 6, 2021, riot by thousands of Trump supporters, who temporarily halted the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
One of Trump’s alleged plots involved an attempt to prevent Congress from confirming Biden’s victory at the Capitol on January 6. As the scene devolved into a violent riot, Trump and his allies “exploited the disruption” to advance their plot, Smith alleged in the interview. Indictment.
The trial in the case is scheduled to begin next March.
Trump’s last appearance in D.C. will be in a hotel ballroom a few blocks from the White House Ellipse. Shortly before the riots began on January 6, Trump held a “Stop the Steal” rally at that location, urging his followers to march to the Capitol and pressure GOP lawmakers to reject key electoral votes.
The D.C. indictment was the first of two separate criminal cases accusing Trump of trying to reverse his election loss. The other case, a large-scale statewide case in Georgia, has not yet set a trial date for Trump and several of his co-defendants.
This article originally appeared on www.cnbc.com
