And the Faith and Freedom Coalition, run by former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, plans to spend a total of $18 million in as many as 30 states, executive director Gary Marx said.
“This is definitely going to be an election where the economy and jobs are the top issues,” said Marx, the national conservative coalitions director for President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004, when voters in 11 states voted down same-sex marriage.
“But for voters who are torn between the candidates,” Marx said, “this could be a tiebreaker issue.”
Marx said that could be particularly true among African American and Latino voters, which his organization plans to target as they tend to be more conservative on social issues such as marriage.