Clinton, Trump Have Huge Hurdles to Jump for Latino Christians

A national Latino evangelical leader says religious liberty, education reform, and life emerged as the most important political issues for delegates at the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) annual convention in California this weekend.

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, NHCLC president, told CBN News that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will need to address carefully core Latino Christian values if they expect to win their vote.

"Donald Trump needs to convince evangelicals that he gets pro-life," Rodriguez said.

Many Hispanic evangelicals are concerned about a perceived ambiguity on Trump's part towards a pro-life agenda, he explained.

Rodriguez said that Clinton must address a perception that the Democratic party has become hostile towards a Christian worldview.

"The Democratic party seems to be emerging with a very uber-secular sort of agenda," Rodriguez said.

He predicted that Clinton will have trouble with Latino and African-American evangelicals because of Democratic party positions  He noted the Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby cases concerning the Obamacare contraception mandate as examples of the Democratic party holding different positions than most Latino Christians.

Both Trump and Clinton sent videotaped messages to more than 1,200 delegates at the NHCLC convention in Anaheim, California. Clinton emphasized her personal faith and immigration reform. Trump focused on jobs and tax cuts for the middle class.

Rodriguez said he will encourage NHCLC members to vote this year, even though many are not currently supporting either Trump or Clinton.

"It's a difficult choice and life is full of difficult choices," Rodriguez said. "And that's where we have to engage our prayerful due diligence and make sure that we're led by the Holy Spirit."

Click play to watch more of Rodriguez's comments on the Latino evangelical vote.