Republican lawmakers and administration officials stood up evangelical conservatives, a key Trump voting bloc increasingly frustrated with the GOP.
Members of the House and Senate, along with at least one Cabinet official, were confirmed as speakers in the months leading up to the Family Research Council's Pray Vote Stand Summit, but nearly all of them had dropped off the roster by the time it began, Joe Perticone reported for The Bulwark on Tuesday.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) was once listed as a confirmed speaker but dropped off the roster over the summer, even though he's facing an unexpectedly close race in November against a Democratic nominee who leads a megachurch.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) went from confirmed speaker to off the list entirely before joining by Zoom on the final day. Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) and Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) were also advertised at various points but didn't make the final lineup. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner disappeared from the list too.
By the end, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) was the only sitting federal officeholder slated to appear in person. The Trump administration's lone representative was Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, who dialed in remotely.
The event, formerly known as the Values Voter Summit, was held for years at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. This year the Family Research Council moved it to Cornerstone Chapel, a church in Leesburg, Virginia, about an hour outside the capital. Perticone reported sparse attendance and said he didn't recognize any other reporters from the political beat.
Tony Perkins, the group's president, used his time onstage to air grievances with his own side. He accused the GOP of backing away from the cause, pointing to the party's decision to drop support for a national abortion ban from its 2024 platform.
"We're fighting for this life issue that many people thought was solved in 2022 when the Court overturned Roe," Perkins said. "But it's more of a battle today than it was then."
He also faulted the White House for leaving in place a rule that allows abortion pills to be sent by mail.
"It's been kept in place by the Trump administration," Perkins said. "It has allowed the abortion industry to adopt an Amazon model for business."