NEW YORK (RNS) — The Rev. Tony Suárez, the vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference who made waves by personally endorsing Donald Trump during his 2016 run for president, said he likely will not endorse political candidates in the future.
An adviser to Trump, Suárez made the comments at the 2025 RNS symposium, “God, Government and the Algorithm: The New Rules of Belief and Power,” at Trinity Commons in New York City on Wednesday (Oct. 22). In response to a question by RNS columnist the Rev. Thomas Reese about endorsing political candidates, Suárez said, “I don’t know that I’ll endorse any more candidates after this go-round,” adding he would like to be “policy-focused” instead of “personality-driven.”
“ I’d like to talk more about concepts and ideas and policy more than ‘How dare you vote for that man?’ or ‘How dare you vote for that woman?’” said Suárez, the Tennessee-based founder of Revivalmaker Ministries.
In July, the IRS said for the first time that churches could endorse political candidates, changing interpretations of an IRS rule to align the Trump administration with conservative legal groups. But Súarez’s statement about his history of personal, as opposed to church, endorsements seems to reveal that not all conservatives are rushing to use their new ability to endorse candidates.
In a Q&A with RNS national reporter Jack Jenkins, Suárez blamed White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller for immigration policies causing fear in Hispanic churches.
“I don’t blame President Trump as much as I blame Stephen Miller,” Suárez said. “I’m not a Stephen Miller fan. I’m very frustrated with him, and I hold him responsible for a lot of the ideology.”
Suárez said that he has voted for Trump three times and that the president has indicated in conversations that he supports immigration reform. His comments echo previous statements the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, NHCLC president, made to PBS in June, saying “there may be a strategy to prompt people to self-deport” through “fearmongering,” but “I’m here to tell you firsthand, in conversations, that’s not President Trump’s directive. … It may be others’, but it’s not his.”
Suárez spoke after Eddie S. Glaude Jr., a Princeton University professor of African American studies, called out the Seven Mountain Mandate, a philosophy that Christians should dominate major areas of society, and Christian nationalism.
The Hispanic pastor then introduced himself to the audience as “ a seven-mountain believing, prosperity-preaching, rapture-seeking Pentecostal preacher of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He later clarified to RNS that while Rodriguez has distanced himself from the prosperity gospel, he stands behind the theology.
“ You can’t call me a white Christian nationalist,” Suárez said. “Call me a Hispanic Christian nationalist, but let’s have a conversation of how that happened. Stop blaming white people for why there’s Hispanic conservatives that support Trump.”
On that count, Suárez pointed the finger at Democrats for failing to deliver on immigration reform, saying it had previously been his single issue in voting. “We thought Democrats would take care of it, and we thought they would take care of the issue, and then they did nothing when they were in power,” he said. Democratic leaders made many promises, but once in power, Suárez said, “ they said, ‘We can’t do anything. The midterms are coming up.’ And then after the midterms passed, well, then there’s another election coming in.”
Reporter Jack Jenkins, left, interviews the Rev. Tony Suárez at the 2025 RNS symposium, “God, Government and the Algorithm: The New Rules of Belief and Power,” at Trinity Commons, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in New York City. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
He also referenced former President Barack Obama’s record-setting deportations during his term, calling Obama the “deporter in chief,” a common criticism from immigration advocates.
Suárez also blamed the left for his first experience of “cancel culture and hate,” as he said he was expelled from the Evangelical Immigration Table after he endorsed Trump. “ People that used to take my phone calls all of a sudden unfollowed. They wouldn’t answer the phone.”
Justifying his meetings with politicians, he said, “ if you’re going to have influence, you have to meet with the people that are in power.”
“ To be fair,” he added, “it wasn’t just Democrats that lied, it was Republicans that at times were unwilling to come to the table of reason” on immigration.
He said that at an inaugural ball for Trump’s second term, he was uncomfortable with guests who were “tackling,” “pushing,” “climbing” and “crawling” to get a glimpse of the president. The pastor said he was frustrated with the “ultraconservatives that have made of Donald Trump a Messiah.”
“ It becomes borderline idolatry and I can’t participate in it,” Suárez said.
One symposium participant, Heather Cabral, managing director of communications at Faith in Action, a left-leaning organizing group, told Suárez his comments felt “harmful.” She raised concerns about pastors who have been shot with pepper balls and experienced other forms of violence at the hands of federal agents while protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago under the Trump administration.
Suárez said he wasn’t aware of those events. “I’ve been arrested for immigration reform,” he said. “ I guess I’m not as involved in the protests the way I used to be.”
The pastor said he was praying for “a revival of compassionate conservatism.” He added, “I don’t know why compassion is a dirty word,” clarifying that he’s not hearing that perspective from conservatives “in my own world.”
Recently, Allie Beth Stuckey’s book “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion” has gained traction in Christian circles. In much the same vein is Joe Rigney’s book “The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits.” Rigney is an associate pastor at Christ Church, the Moscow, Idaho, evangelical congregation founded by Doug Wilson, the co-founder of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s denomination.
But Suárez said, “ I’m praying that there would be a revival of compassionate conservatism that would care about the poor, that would care about the growth, that would care about the less fortunate and care about the immigrant.” He continued, “I pray that in that compassion a lot of us could find ourselves back at the table working and using it together.”