Allen Whitt considers himself a true “movement conservative” and often leads political battles in his state, championing social issues and conservative values. But in West Virginia’s presidential primary Tuesday, Whitt, president of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia, cast his ballot for a candidate no longer running, and he’s not yet sure whether he’ll vote at all in the November general election. While Trump is now the only Republican left running for president, socially conservative white evangelical voters like Whitt are divided on how to handle their party’s presumptive nominee. Throughout the primary season, Trump has gotten support from rank-and-file evangelical voters, but many of the country’s prominent evangelicals and those who are most devout see Trump as antithetical to everything they stand for. As they threaten to withhold support from Trump, the evangelical movement, which is typically a crucial voting bloc for Republicans, is weighing a choice between abandoning their party or their strong religious beliefs on social issues. Primary contests in West Virginia and Nebraska on Tuesday proved the first test for how these voters might act with Trump as their presumptive nominee. While the New York real estate magnate easily won both states, both Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich still had their names on the ballots, and each received portions of the vote, particularly in Nebraska. Whitt said his vote for Cruz in West Virginia Tuesday wasn’t just symbolic, but rather aimed at electing delegates who would share his values going into the Republican National Convention this summer.
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