Former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal speaks at the 2014 Values Voter Summit September 26, 2014 in Washington. Influential evangelicals to try to rally behind one GOP candidate at meeting

Around 200 of the country’s most influential evangelicals will huddle on Friday and Saturday in hopes of coalescing their support around a single Republican presidential candidate.

The Council for National Policy, a secretive group of Christian donors, activists, and leaders that is currently overseen by Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, will meet behind closed doors at the Ritz-Carleton in McLean, Va. Over the two day period, they are expected to hear from a handful of 2016 hopefuls who are eager to woo them, including Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee.


The meeting will be closed to press.

Many evangelical leaders have expressed a desire to unite around a candidate. But privately, with multiple contenders presenting themselves as unflinching social conservatives, there is skepticism among Christian power-brokers that goal can be achieved. Still, there is little question that evangelicals will play a crucial role in the nominating contest: In the past, they have helped to swing the Iowa caucuses. Huckabee won the contest in 2008, while Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, another social conservative, won them four years later.

Scott Walker, who’s drawn suspicion from many key social conservatives for past statements on abortion and gay marriage, will not be in attendance. A Walker aide said he planned on being present for the council’s next meeting in October.

Walker, who on Thursday returned from a trip to Israel, has invited around 50 top evangelicals to meet with him on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon for a private roundtable discussion. Many of those evangelicals are in town for the weekend summit.