Strong contrast remains between the two presidential candidates, and skipping the election is not the right plan, he said, but Perkins is also urging strong pro-lifers to rethink their financial giving.
“Staying home is not an option. Not voting is a vote for the worst possible outcome,” Perkins said on his own Washington Watch program Tuesday. “We have to be informed and engaged even when we’re not completely happy with what we’re dealing with.”
Engagement, he told the audience, is much more than casting a vote. In the aftermath of the platform’s release, Perkins, himself a delegate for the platform meeting, is encouraging the party’s strong pro-life members to stop financially supporting the Republican National Committee.
“If this is the approach the RNC is taking, quite frankly, I don’t think we should be supporting the RNC with our finances,” Perkins told show host Jody Hice.
“We need to be voting, and we need to vote for candidates who most closely align with biblical truth. There are very few opportunities we get that those are perfectly aligned, although there are more and more getting into the process, but you have to use discernment,” Perkins said.
On the question of giving, Perkins said it’s time to ditch the RNC. He suggests giving directly to candidates or to groups such as FRC Action, the legislative wing of the Family Research Council.
FRC Action, a super PAC, can receive unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations.
“We should give our time and money to those candidates and those entities that are clearly supporting biblical truth and are willing to fight for biblical truth,” Perkins said.
Sometimes course correction is necessary
This is not the first time Perkins has called on pro-life Republicans to halt financial support to the RNC.
“I’ve done this in the past, and they did a course correction, and so I removed my objections," he recalled. "But I would say you should not give any money to the RNC. You should direct your money either directly to the candidates or to entities like FRC Action."
Perkins and 20 other delegates, who voted in the minority, submitted a report outlining their concerns. The report makes mention of other topics within the platform, but the greatest point of concern for the minority is the life issue.
It took decades of victories to solidify Republicans as the pro-life party. Many felt, wrongly as subsequent state elections have shown, that the battle was won when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022.
The life issue “was 40-plus years in the making, and to walk away from that in one platform is unacceptable,” Perkins said.
The RNC’s platform significantly watered down the party’s support for life in the political arena.
The Hyde Amendment, a legislative amendment that took effect in 1980 which bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortion except in cases of rape or the mother’s health, is not mentioned.
For the minority, the call to defund Planned Parenthood and the lack of international religious freedom discussion are also glaring omissions in the platform.
The RNC also conducted its platform business in a sneaky way. State delegates at the meeting Monday were given very little time to review the platform. A process that has taken up to two days in the past was shortened to a couple of hours in a crowded room before a vote was called.
“Delegates didn’t have a chance to read it beforehand. There were no sub-committees. It happened extremely fast,” said Brent Keilen, the FRC’s vice president for strategic initiatives.
Two pro-life South Carolina delegates were removed, denied an appeal, and replaced with two more favored by the national committee.
“The process was completely wiped out. The cake was baked. They had a desire to just steamroll through this, and from the 84-18 vote you could tell,” said Chad Connelly, one of the ousted delegates.
What are you really about, RNC?
Perkins said the platform lacks vision for the future.
“There are no aspirational goals in here, there’s nothing to say where you’re going to go, what you’re about,” he said.
It’s important for pro-life and social conservatives to continue their work even when policy decisions don’t break their way.
“We have to vote, and we have to have discernment, and we have to understand we’re not going to have perfect alignment. We are disappointed in this temporary setback. We’re not going to say it’s permanent because we’re going to continue to push. We’re going to vote because we’re going to have a clear contrast this fall,” Perkins said.
