(Radio Iowa) –  Dozens of Iowa pastors and worship leaders are endorsing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president today (Friday). Darran Whiting, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, is one of the people signing on to the DeSantis campaign’s Faith and Freedom Coalition. Whiting says it’s time to make his choice public. “I appreciate the stand that Governor DeSantis has taken, especially on life,” Whiting says. “Not that there aren’t other good candidates, but at this point I think Governor DeSantis is the right man at the right time.” Former President Donald Trump’s criticism of DeSantis for signing a Florida law to ban most abortions after the sixth week of a pregnancy was a defining moment for Whiting.

“I am pro-life. I don’t think it’s a terrible mistake to protect life at six weeks,” Whiting says, “and I think it’s a terrible mistake for former President Trump to say that.” And, if Trump winds up being the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, he will not get Whiting’s vote.  “I cannot vote for somebody who tried to overthrow the government,” Whiting says. “I appreciate the Supreme Court justices that he put into place.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on the Iowa campaign trail. (RI photo)

“I appreciate some of his policies, but I absolutely, positively cannot endorse his rhetoric, his divisiveness, his lack of constitutional knowledge…We can’t afford at this point having a president who could be a felon running this country.”

Whiting says he thought and prayed about this decision and will be proud to Caucus for DeSantis in January. “Just his unwavering stance on life and social issues and his ability to articulate that position is essentially what led me to him,” Whiting says. Nearly 80 percent of likely Iowa Caucus-goers in the recent Des Moines Register “Iowa Poll” said a candidate’s stand on abortion restrictions is either “important” or “extremely important.”

The head of the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders endorsed DeSantis in September, as did two Iowa attorneys who’ve represented the State of Iowa against legal challenges of a six week abortion ban.