Fresh from helping President-elect Trump win, influential evangelical leaders are planning to nearly triple their 2016 budget to target 12 states in the upcoming 2017 and 2018 elections.

David Lane's American Renewal Project, which spent $9 million to help Christian politicians win by pushing long-dormant evangelical voters to the polls last year, expects to drop $24 million in the next two years, starting with state elections in Virginia and Louisiana.

"Christians must select as representatives leaders who will bring biblical values to the public square," he told Secrets

The American Renewal Project has big plans to help the GOP in the next two elections.

His group is known for hosting "Pastors and Pews" events around the nation that bring together evangelicals and mostly Republican politicians. His goal was getting more evangelical voters to the polls and pastors to run for office, both successes in the 2016 election.

And he seeks similar success in 2018. There are already 200 pastors running for city council, county commissioner, school board in 2018.

"By simple arithmetic, if the Lord called 1,000 pastors to run in 2018 and if they averaged 300 volunteers per campaign, then that would mean 300,000 ground-level evangelicals working within their local precincts. When my own pastor, Rob McCoy, ran for office, he saw 625 volunteers join in his campaign. A similar grassroots is planned for evangelical pastors, a movement-from coast-to-coast-would to bring Biblical values to the public square and change America for good," he said.

Lane said he hopes to help deliver a big win for the GOP Senate in 2018. "The 100,000 American Renewal Project Evangelical pastors and their flocks will stay engaged and net an additional eight Senate seats and give a conservative filibuster-proof Senate majority in 2018," he pledged.

His new "strategic plan" includes rallying 2,000 churches to help increase the evangelical vote.

And this week, he told his members not to be wedded to political parties, though he emphasized that Democrats in his view do not speak for evangelicals or even pro-life Catholics.

In a memo to his flock, Lane wrote, "There's nothing good or bad about the Democrat Party or the Republican Party. They are empty, holding vessels; like-minded constituents are housed there. And yet, I can say without hesitation that Evangelicals and Pro-Life Catholic Christians are not housed in the Democrat Party. Democrats believe in abortion and same-sex marriage, and both are incompatible with Biblical Christian behavior. Democrat judges will consistently rule in favor of homosexual marriage, abortion and transgender-rights like 'bathroom-bill' laws. Christians must select as representatives leaders who will bring Biblical values to the public square."

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com