Donald Trump must convince evangelicals he will appoint conservative Supreme Court justices, says Texas pastor

In order to win over the evangelical community, a pastor suggested that Trump must emphasize his commitment to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks onstage during a campaign rally in Akron, Ohio, U.S., August 22, 2016 | REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

"Many of the issues we evangelicals care about - the sanctity of life, religious liberty - are going to be decided by the Supreme Court," Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, told Fox News. Jeffress also pointed out that Trump had already released his top conservative picks for Supreme Court justices, something which Jeffress observed has never been done before by any presidential candidate.

According to a survey by Pew Poll last July, evangelicals preferred Trump over Clinton three-to-one. Despite these figures, Jeffress noted that Trump may still lose to Clinton if evangelical voters decide to stay at home and not vote.

"The danger is not that evangelicals are going to vote for Clinton," Jeffress said in the interview. "The danger is that they won't turn out and vote at all, like they did in 2012 by the millions," he added.

According to Jeffress, McCain and Romney made the mistake of overlooking the importance of the evangelical vote and thinking that evangelicals have no choice but to vote for the Republican candidates.

"Donald Trump isn't making that mistake. For the last year, he has made a concerted effort to reach out to evangelical voters," Jeffress told Fox.

The report by Fox News noted that Trump has been campaigning hard to appeal to religious voters and convince them to be more active in the election process.

Jeffress is one of the members of Trump's evangelical advisory board. Other prominent members of the board include James Dobson, Jerry Falwell Jr., Kenneth, Gloria Copeland, David Jeremiah, former congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Paula White.

The board members advise Trump on issues that are important to evangelicals but they were not asked to endorse the candidate as a prerequisite for board participation, according to a press release by the Trump campaign.