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Practice may not make perfect for Donald Trump, but the Republican nominee clearly has refined his appeal to evangelical voters in the past year.

Donald Trump. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

One year after Trump was booed at the Values Voters Summit for calling Marco Rubio “a clown,” the Republican nominee gave a more polished speech where he ignored politically divisive issues like abortion and same-sex marriage and instead focused on school vouchers and changing federal law to allow tax exempt churches to engage in political advocacy. To Trump, school choice, which he advocated for in a speech on Thursday was a needed innovation. “The education can’t get worse,” he said as Trump also pledged to “campaign to get the states to re-allocate another $110 billion of their education budgets to school choice programs”

Speaking from teleprompters, it served as a pointed contrast to his speech a year ago which seemed to focus on the importance of saying “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.” Trump still was by no means a natural in front of a crowd of ardent social conservatives. He referred to attendees as “you people” at one point. Trump also railed against the Obama administration for not admitting Christian refugees from Syria into the United States, a major cause of concern for evangelicals who have long advocated for minority Christian communities in the Middle East. The problem is that Trump’s own refugee policy would be a blanket ban on anyone from the region entering the United States.

He did seem cognizant that no one would mistake him for a devout evangelical. At one point in the speech he joked that his support for repealing the Johnson Amendment, which would allow churches to engage in partisan politics while keeping their tax exempt status, was the only way he could get into heaven. But the biggest applause was not for Trump himself but for when he proclaimed “Hillary Clinton is unfit to be president.” The room exploded in applause and one attendee could be seen waving his tricorn hat in support.

Values Voter Summit is sponsored by the Family Research Council and has a constellation of conservative groups represented. Even the far-right John Birch Society had a table in the group’s exhibition hall.

But Trump’s performance seemed to ease the concerns of attendees who represented some of the most ardent cultural warriors in the party, a group that has long been uncomfortable with the nominee and preferred other candidates like Ted Cruz in the primary.

Dylan Miller, a rising community college freshman from Northwest Florida said the speech changed his mind about Trump. “He doesn’t seem maniacal” said the teenager, in contrast to the Republican nominee’s performances on television. Miller had said he had always planned on voting for Trump “because he wasn’t Hillary,” but Trump’s performance made him feel far more comfortable with his vote.

Another attendee, Sarah Ocker, a student at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma, said she was “more there” now than she was before the speech. She “agreed with a lot” of what Trump said, particularly about “religious liberty.” Ocker still had major hesitations about Trump and still couldn’t commit to voting for the Republican nominee though but was “hoping” she could find a reason to vote for him in November.

Vernon Lewis of Marshall, Texas was further along in the process. Lewis had once thought he would have to hold his nose to vote for Trump. But after a private meeting with other Christians with Trump in New York as well as seeing his speech Friday, Lewis was enthusiastic. “He is a very gentle guy.”