During The 1980s, The Republicans Added Evangelical Christians To Their Coalition
In the 1980s, the Republican Party altered their coalition to include evangelical Christians, which subsequently helped them to win the 1984 presidential election. During this period, the Republican Party saw its base expand to include socially conservative, evangelical Christians, who were reinvigorating the party’s American values-oriented political platform.
Prior to the 1980s, the evangelical Christian vote was largely untapped by the Republican Party. As such, the appearance of former movie actor Ronald Reagan as the Republican presidential nominee in 1980 signaled a dramatic shift in the party’s ideology and its approach to campaigning and coalition-building. While previous candidates largely focused on economic conservatism and appeals to fiscal responsibility, Reagan instead made overtures to evangelical Christians, courting their support with a platform that celebrated “traditional” family values and condemned abortion.
Reagan’s election in 1980 ushered in an era of unprecedented success for the Republican Party. From 1980 to 1992, the GOP held the presidency for 12 years and experienced a flurry of state and federal legislative victories. In 1984, Reagan won a landmark 49-state landslide victory, and his electoral success was largely credited to his effectiveness in clinching the evangelical vote.
To achieve this goal, Reagan employed a number of tactics, including speaking at evangelical church gatherings and at Christian-oriented events. He also made sure to include social conservatives in his cabinet and appointment decisions. Additionally, Reagan created a number of initiatives designed to cater to the religious right, including the creation of a “President’s Task Force on Religious Freedom.”
During the 1980s, Reagan’s example of courting the evangelical vote transformed the Republican Party. By 1992, the GOP had created a dependable coalition that included fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, and evangelical Christians. This coalition was widely credited for the Republican’s electoral successes of the 1990s, including the election of George H.W. Bush as President in 1988 and the 1994 Republican Revolution, in which the Republican Party took control of both chambers of Congress.
It is clear that the Republican Party’s decision to add evangelical Christians to their coalition during the 1980s was a major factor in their electoral successes of the decade. By appealing to this largely untapped demographic, the party was able to solidify its base and launch a period of unprecedented success.