This evangelical Christian ‘Girl Mom’ supports Donald Trump

I am a conservative evangelical Christian, mom of two girls, and the exact target audience who is supposed to write off Trump in this election, in light of his recently released comments from 11 years ago.

I love my God and my country, and not for a second have I considered voting for Hillary, staying home, or throwing my vote away in protest on a fringe candidate, who doesn’t even know what Aleppo is but wants to run the free world.

I am a woman. I am a mom. I am a Christian. I am a Trump supporter. 

{mosads}I know some evangelicals who are outraged that I still support Trump and would just love to take my Jesus card. Lucky for me, it doesn’t work that way.

Do I think his comments 11 years ago were inappropriate? Yes, I do. Do I think they were downright sleazy? Again, yes. Is that how I would want a man talking about my daughters?  Absolutely not.

I can talk about how Hillary represented a child rapist and laughed about it, or how she degraded women by threatening and smearing her husband’s many extra-curricular lady friends. However, that’s not really the point.

While I don’t know his heart, I have seen nothing from Donald Trump that shows me he is an evangelical Christian who adheres to the tenets of the Bible. In other words, he’s never professed to be the next Billy Graham.

As such, why would any evangelical be surprised when he behaves like he’s not?  Why would any evangelical be surprised when he acts like every other red blooded heterosexual male who doesn’t hold themselves to a higher standard?

Look at the movies that win Academy Awards, TV shows that become “must see TV,” and the books that develop cult followings (think Fifty Shades of Grey). It seems the more crude and the more explicit, the bigger the following.

But when a heterosexual male who doesn’t hold himself to a higher standard behaves in that same manner, we are outraged? The hypocrisy is stunning to me.

I get that this is not the face of the Republican Party many evangelicals want to see. In my perfect world, I’d be driving around in a car that had a “Rubio/Fiorina” sticker on my bumper instead of “Trump/Pence.”

However, my world is not perfect. My world is real.

I keep hearing people say that you don’t have to “settle,” that you have choices in this election. Actually, your choices are Trump or Clinton. That’s not my opinion. Those are just the facts.

If you don’t like those facts, sure, you are free to fill in one of the other two circles on the ballot, write in a name, or just stay home. But rest assured, your protest vote will in fact be a vote for Hillary Clinton. That’s just how it works.

If you’re frustrated, it would be much more effective to channel your energy and passion into a place where it could actually make a difference, instead of having the potential to make things much, much worse for the world my kids and yours will grow up in.  

Get involved in local politics and grassroots efforts you feel strongly about outside of a presidential election cycle. The local level is where the next generation of national leaders are born, and grassroots efforts can be very effective in influencing that next generation.

If I were looking for a pastor, Trump would not be my guy. But I’m looking for a President. A commander-in-chief who will keep my children safe when they walk outside my house, who will fight terrorism instead of fund it, who will appoint Supreme Court justices who will protect our religious freedom instead of trampling all over it, who will support our troops overseas when they call for help instead of leaving them for dead.

I’m an evangelical Christian, a mom who loves her daughters and cares deeply about her country. That is precisely why on November 8, I will unapologetically vote for Donald Trump.

Lauren DeBellis Appell, a mom and freelance writer in Fairfax, Va., was a press assistant for Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and deputy press secretary for his successful 2000 re-election campaign, as well as assistant communications director for the Senate Republican Policy Committee (2001-2003).

The views of Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.