The president of the Iowa-Nebraska chapter of the NAACP endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats (pictured) in Iowa this week, calling his opposition to same-sex marriage an “important factor.”

“It’s an important factor,” said Keith Ratliff, the NAACP chapter president, according to The Des Moines Register. “There’s no doubt about it, it’s an important factor.”

Ratliff, a Democrat, is pastor of the Maple Street Missionary Baptist Church in Des Moines, and a vocal critic of the Iowa supreme court’s unanimous April 2009 decision that legalized same-sex marriage.

Vander Plaats says that as governor he would issue an executive order to halt same-sex marriages until voters could decide the issue in a constitutional convention.