In a new video posted on his official Facebook page on Saturday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump whipped out an apparently worn copy of the Holy Bible while thanking the evangelical voting block for maintaining his high ranking in recent polls.
The billionaire businessman showed off a Bible that he says his mother gave him "many years ago." The video is an attempt to appeal to Iowa evangelicals, a coveted block in the state's upcoming caucuses, which will be held on Monday.
"I really appreciate the support given to me by the evangelicals. They've been incredible. Every poll says how well I am doing with them," Trump said in the 36-second clip. While flipping the first page of the book, he explained how he got the Bible from mother, "In fact, it's her writing right here. She wrote the name and my address and it's just very special to me."
For those following Trump's trail, they may have noticed that this is not the first time the candidate has used the Bible in his campaign. He already waved the same copy during a speech he gave at the Values Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. back in September 2015.
This is the GOP front-runner's latest attempt to court evangelical Christians, two days prior to the Iowa caucus. CBS News reported that conservative Christians are expected to make up a large percentage of the attendees in the said event.
Former executive director of the Republican Governors' Association, Mike McSherry, told Politico: "If Trump wins Iowa, I don't know how you'd stop him. All these guys are going to be chewing each other's throats out for second place."
On the national level, Trump has been leading among white evangelicals, with 39% support, according to a CNN/ORC poll shared on Tuesday. That percentage is ahead of fellow Republican candidates Texas senator Ted. Cruz, who had 25%, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson Sr., who had 11%.
The Texas senator, who kick-started his presidential campaign at Liberty University, has maintained a large lead among evangelical voters in Iowa throughout most of the primary season. However, a CBS News battleground tracker poll shows that Trump has cut into Cruz's advantage among the state's evangelicals earlier this week. While Cruz had 47% of the evangelical vote to 28% for Trump last month, the former now only leads 38-30. Moreover, Trump received the endorsement of Jerry Falwell Jr., president of the aforementioned university and the son of the eponymous influential evangelical leader, last week.
At the time of this writing, the said Facebook video already has more than 600,000 views, shared over 6,000 times, and amassed more than 50,000 "reactions" by users of the social network.
