PHILADELPHIA — Donald Trump’s outreach to the gay community during his prime time acceptance speech in Cleveland last week could win him the most LGBTQ votes in Republican presidential election history, according to the head of a GOP gay organization.
“My prediction is that Donald Trump will win this election,” said Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory T. Angelo. And, referencing a prediction by liberal movie director Michael Moore, he added, “Trump is going to win in a landslide.”
Thank you to @EqualityForum for the gracious invitation to represent @LogCabinGOP during the #DemConvention! pic.twitter.com/FrkqFqAFNJ
— Gregory T. Angelo (@gregorytangelo) July 26, 2016
Citing a high of 31 percent for the Republican gay vote in a recent election, Angelo told an Equality Forum event here that the number could go higher for Trump. “I think there’s an opportunity, especially given the explicit outreach Donald Trump has made to the LGBTQ community,” he said.
Log Cabin Republicans has yet to endorse Trump, and is awaiting a meeting with him before making a decision.
But Angelo told Secrets that Trump is the first Republican presidential candidate ever to reach out to the LGBTQ community so publicly, especially compared to the 2012 presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, who turned his back to them.
“What the Trump campaign has done at least in so far as it has engaged in LGBTQ issues, and done so explicitly, it has jettisoned a lot of the more fiery rhetoric that we see around social issues, rhetoric that in previous election cycles, even only four years ago, included the Republican Party nominee not just saying that he doesn’t support marriage equality, but going so far as to sign a pledge and saying he would support a constitutional ban on marriage equality,” he said after the event which took place across the street from the Liberty Bell.
While the Republican Platform has been slammed as anti-gay, Angelo said that Trump’s outreach and his past support for gay issues will rule if he is elected. He also said that Republican gays are not always single issue voters, and are also concerned about fighting ISIS and immigration.
He urged Trump to support non-discrimination changes to current laws and “to do no harm” to laws allowing same-sex marriage.
What encouraged him about Trump is the way the candidate raised the issue in his acceptance speech, and Trump’s ad lib that he was pleased Republican delegates applauded his comments.
“What a poignant moment it was that Trump directly referenced LGBTQ community. And, by the way, I would argue that that is even more important because there was no political risk for President Obama and certainly Hillary Clinton to support marriage equality as they did. But for Trump to reference LGBTQ community in prime time during his nomination acceptance was not only historic, it’s something that in the past the consultant class advised against…but he went ahead and did it anyway,” said Angelo.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
