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Evangelical support: Thompson accepts endorsement

Leah Rupp • leah.rupp@clarionledger.com • December 15, 2007

On board with Thompson's platform



Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson's second stop in Jackson in less than a month may have been more about highlighting his evangelical endorsements than pushing his words, some say.


Just weeks from the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus, Thompson and other GOP contenders are battling for support from conservative Christians.

Some voters say they're still on board with Thompson's platform, but many polls show he's losing a demographic that was thought to be in the bag.

"The most important work is going on in the families of this country," Thompson, 65, said Friday at the state Capitol flanked by several ministers. "The next most important... is going on in the private efforts and institutions that private people... and religious people have formed to do good work."

On Friday, several religious leaders - including the Rev. Phillip Knight, president of the Florence-based Congregational Methodist Church - said they would back the U.S. senator from Tennessee for the GOP nomination.

"Sen. Fred Thompson has remained consistently conservative regarding our values," said Knight, adding that in the next couple of weeks, more than 100 conservative ministers would endorse the GOP candidate. "In the areas of defense, fiscal policy and moral truth, Fred Thompson has never ventured down the road toward liberalism."

Thompson describes himself as loyal to traditional right-of-center issues, such as being anti-abortion and pro-limited government.

He has underwhelmed some in his stance on same-sex marriage, though, as he supports statewide bans instead of a federal answer.

Nationally, his efforts to attract the Christian right may have been eclipsed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister who has recently moved up as a Republican front-runner, said Steve Rozman, a political science professor at Tougaloo College.

Asked whether he felt threatened by Huckabee's growing support from Christian conservatives, Thompson said: "With all humility, I don't feel threatened by anything.

"...I don't fear anybody else or anything else as long as I'm right with the Lord and he's right with me," Thompson continued.

"The rest of it will take care of itself."

As far as the critics that say he's lost momentum, Thompson said he's not concerned.

"If the person who's been running since he was a junior in high school is going to win, then that leaves me out," he said.

"These are the same experts that elected president Howard Dean in Iowa as the winner in (2004). 'Course I believe he turned out to be third."

How all these factors will come in to play in Mississippi still remains to be seen, Rozman said.

"But he's going to have to really recharge his batteries" to pick up more votes, he said.

During his first visit on Nov. 19, Thompson attended a dinner in honor of state Republican Chairman Jim Herring.

Several other Republican contenders, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, also have stopped in Mississippi.

Democrats such as John Edwards, who was also a 2004 presidential candidate, and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois have been in the state as well.

Pascagoula resident Margie Szymonik said she's already decided her ballot will go to Thompson.

"He's a good, steady country boy and I would like to see him in the White House," she said, stopping to hear his speech while touring the Capitol Friday.

Louise Barnet of Gautier, who was on the same tour, wasn't ready to commit to any one candidate, though.

"None of them have really turned me on yet," she said.