Takeaways from AP’s report on the evangelicals backing Kamala Harris

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has heavily courted conservative evangelicals since his arrival on the political scene almost a decade ago. Now he is selling Trump-themed Bibles, touting the overturning of Roe v. Wade and imploring Christians to get out the vote for him.

But a small and diverse coalition of evangelicals is looking to pull their fellow believers away Trump’s fold, offering not only an alternate candidate to support but an alternate vision for their faith altogether.

Grassroots groups like Evangelicals for Harris have run advertisements and a Zoom call. Despite some policy differences with the vice president, they argue she is the better choice this election.

Here are takeaways from AP’s report on the evangelicals supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.

Exploiting cracks in Trump’s evangelical base

Trump has historically maintained strong support among evangelical voters. According to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of the electorate, about 8 in 10 evangelical voters cast a ballot for him in 2020.

But some evangelicals have used perceived cracks in his political fidelity to further distance themselves from the former president, especially as Trump and his surrogates have waffled over whether he would sign a federal abortion ban  should he become president.

The Rev. Dwight McKissic, a Baptist pastor from Texas who spoke on the Evangelicals for Harris call, said he saw no “moral superiority of one party over the other,” citing the GOP’s recent party platform that lacked a national abortion ban and softened its stance against same-sex marriage.

Though he has historically voted Republican, McKissic said he would vote for Harris, whom he said has stronger character and qualifications.

Presbyterian pastor Lee Scott, who is part of Evangelicals for Harris, said he is anti-abortion and doesn’t agree with Harris on all policies. “But at the same time, she has a pro-family platform,” he said, citing her education policies and promise to expand the child tax credit.

With modest funding in 2020, the group, formerly known as Evangelicals for Biden, targeted evangelical voters in swing states. This election, the Rev. Jim Ball, the organization’s president, said they’re expanding the operation and looking to spend a million dollars on targeted advertisements.

While white evangelicals vote strongly Republican, not all evangelicals are a lock for the GOP, and in a tight race, every vote counts.

In 2020, Biden won about 2 in 10 white evangelicals, but performed better with evangelical voters overall, according to AP VoteCast, winning about one-third of this group. A September AP-NORC poll found that around 6 in 10 Americans who identify as “born-again” or “evangelical” have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Harris, but that unfavorability increases to 8 in 10 for white evangelicals.

Working with the campaign

In August, Harris’ campaign hired the Rev. Jen Butler, a Presbyterian (U.S.A.) minister and experienced faith-based organizer, to lead its religious outreach.

Butler told the AP she has been in touch with Evangelicals for Harris, and she wants to harness the power of grassroots groups to engage religious voters.

The campaign is focusing on Black Protestants and Latino evangelicals, especially in key swing states. They are reaching out to Catholics and mainline Protestants across the Rust Belt and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arizona and Nevada. Butler’s colleagues are working with Jewish and Muslim constituencies.

Catholics for Harris and Interfaith for Harris groups are launching. Mainline Protestant groups like Black Church PAC and Christians for Kamala are also campaigning on behalf of the vice president.

Butler said the Harris campaign can find common ground with evangelicals, particularly suburban evangelical women who want compassionate approaches to issues like immigration and abortion.

Imagining a new evangelical identity

The chorus of evangelicals who find voting for a Democrat unconscionable remains loud.

The term evangelical itself is fraught and has become synonymous with the Republican Party, argues Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University.

Evangelicalism has historically referenced Christians who hold conservative theological beliefs regarding issues like the importance of the Bible and being born again. But that’s changed as the term has grown more connected with Republican voters.

Latasha Morrison told the AP that as a Black woman, she didn’t identify as evangelical until she started attending predominantly white churches. For years her anti-abortion views led her to vote Republican, but this election, she thinks women and children will be better off under a Harris administration.

Soong-Chan Rah, a professor of evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, said that by endorsing Harris, he hopes to “show that there are other voices in the church aside from the religious right and Trump evangelicals.”

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