Former President Donald Trump has been actively targeting conservative evangelicals for nearly a decade, promoting Trump-branded Bibles and advocating for the overturning of Roe v. Wade while urging Christians to vote for him. Despite his efforts, a group of diverse evangelicals is aiming to steer their fellow believers away from Trump by endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as an alternative candidate with a different vision for their faith.
Organizations like Evangelicals for Harris have been running ads and holding events to support Harris in the upcoming election. These evangelicals, including Baptist pastor Rev. Dwight McKissic and Presbyterian pastor Lee Scott, believe that Harris offers a stronger character and qualifications compared to Trump. While they may not agree with all of Harris’s policies, they appreciate her focus on education and family-related platforms.
Evangelicals for Harris, formerly known as Evangelicals for Biden, plans to expand their efforts in the 2020 election, aiming to spend a million dollars on targeted ads to reach evangelical voters in swing states. Political science professor Ryan Burge notes that while white evangelicals tend to vote Republican, not all evangelicals are aligned with the GOP, and every vote matters in a tight race.
Harris’s campaign has hired Presbyterian minister Rev. Jen Butler to lead religious outreach, with a focus on engaging Black Protestants and Latino evangelicals in key swing states. The campaign is also reaching out to Catholics, mainline Protestants, and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as Jewish and Muslim constituencies to broaden their support base.
Some evangelicals, like Black woman Latasha Morrison and Fuller Theological Seminary professor Soong-Chan Rah, are envisioning a new evangelical identity by supporting Harris. They believe that embracing a more diverse political perspective within the faith community is crucial, especially as the term “evangelical” has become closely associated with the Republican Party in recent years. Ultimately, this group of evangelicals supporting Harris aims to showcase the existence of varied voices within the church beyond those traditionally aligned with the religious right and Trump evangelicals.
