Sen. Ted Cruz dazzled the crowd, a surging Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker delivered the keynote and Donald Trump was not yet a candidate for president when the Faith and Freedom Coalition held its annual Road to Majority conference in 2015.
A year later, Trump addressed the audience having just locked in the Republican Party's nomination for president.
The country's evangelicals will meet once again this weekend in Washington, DC, for the conference, and with the GOP field somewhat solidified, the two-day gathering marks the first time the biggest names in the race will appear on the same stage as the summer audition season kicks into gear. As Trump proved in 2015, much can change between Friday's opening prayer and when voters begin to make their choices in January.
But entering the weekend, Trump remains firmly the front-runner -- a fact that is apparent not only in recent polls but in the conference's programming itself. Trump, making his first in-person appearance at a cattle call since announcing his 2024 bid, will serve as the keynote speaker for the event's closing gala. The rest of the field -- from top rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to candidates with longer odds like former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson -- will fight for attention from the morning crowd as they take turns at the mic before the conference breaks for lunch.
Trump allies, too, will fill much of the time in between. Last year's losing Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, conservative commentators Nick Adams and Judge Jeanine Pirro, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham are all scheduled to speak. The Trump-heavy lineup underscores the challenges for other candidates to break out in a party still dominated by the former president.
"Donald Trump is arguably the strongest front-runner and in the strongest position overall of anyone in my career," said Ralph Reed, the founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
But Reed added that Trump's competition has a strong case to make, too, and there are paths for many of them to secure the nomination. Reed singled out DeSantis as an especially well-funded candidate who appears to pose a serious threat to the former president.
A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS in the wake of his indictment and arrest on federal charges showed Trump remained the front-runner -- 47% of Republicans and Republican-leaning registered voters say Trump is their first choice for the party's nomination. That's down from 53% in May. His support appears to be softening amid his legal troubles, with a greater share of Republicans now saying they will not support him under any circumstances. DeSantis' support has held steady at 26% and no other candidate in the growing field tops double digits.
"For the candidates that are not as high in the polls, this is an opportunity and an important moment for them to make their case," Reed said. "If you're not Donald Trump, it's a very short calendar where you have to win somewhere and you have to do it quickly. If someone can win one of those first three states, and especially Iowa or New Hampshire, this race will change overnight. I think that's part of why they're all here."
Former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Hutchinson, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and DeSantis will speak on Friday. Radio show host Larry Elder and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will address the conference on Saturday.
An audience of religious voters might not be the proper venue to throw the sharpest elbows at Trump, but some have signaled their intent to draw distinctions with the former president in hopes of cutting into his support with the evangelical conservatives who are influential in GOP primary politics.
Ahead of the conference, a senior adviser to Christie's campaign told CNN, "It's really a character discussion."
"Do we have to constantly expect less of our leaders?" the adviser asked, referencing Trump. "Are we willing to excuse bad behavior going forward?"
DeSantis, meanwhile, is expected to tout the passage of Florida's six-week abortion ban when he addresses the audience on Friday -- a measure that Trump has described as "too harsh," which is a distinction between the two that DeSantis is quick to point out. With the conference coming a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the future of abortion access in the country is expected to loom large over the conservative gathering.
Republican voters are increasingly getting opportunities to size up the GOP field and evaluate them in the same setting. Next weekend, Trump, DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy and Hutchinson will address a summit in Philadelphia hosted by Moms For Liberty, a relatively new but increasingly influential group of conservative women focused largely on K-12 education issues.
The Road to Majority conference takes place just two months before the first scheduled Republican presidential debate on August 23 in Milwaukee. Trump on Tuesday repeated his suggestion that he may not participate.
"Why would I let these people take shots at me?" he told Fox News.
However, Trump's appearance on Saturday in DC marks a change in approach from similar Republican gatherings. To date, when Trump has participated, it has been via video message, just as he did at Faith and Freedom's Iowa event earlier this year. Trump also skipped Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst's annual "Roast and Ride" earlier this month, which drew the rest of the field that had entered at the time.
Reed encouraged Trump to spend more time talking to voters and less time harping on his legal troubles and past elections.
"He has a tremendous story to tell, and it's the reason he's doing so well among these voters now," Reed said. "But I think it's important for him to talk about what a second term agenda looks like."
