Vice President Kamala Harris’ marketing campaign is launching its “Souls to the Polls” effort this weekend to end up Black churchgoers in battleground states as Election Day approaches, a marketing campaign official advised ABC Information.
With fewer than 30 days till Election Day, the marketing campaign’s multi-pronged effort will see Harris herself go to Black church buildings in battleground states. The get-out-the-vote program additionally comes with the creation of a religion advisory board, made up of 10 outstanding religion leaders — together with Harris’ pastor, Dr. Amos C. Brown III, who leads Third Baptist Church in San Francisco — who will interact Black church buildings throughout the nation.
Along with Brown, the marketing campaign mentioned board contains religion leaders, collaborating of their private capability, from across the nation, together with: Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, 132nd elected and consecrated Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, 117th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas; and Rev. Matthew Lawrence Watley, founder and senior pastor of Kingdom Fellowship AME Church in Calverton, Maryland.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on the Nationwide Baptist Conference on Sept. 8, 2022 in Houston.
Brandon Bell/Getty Photos, FILE
The push kicks off Sunday with a nationwide name that includes gospel performances, religion leaders and elected officers, the marketing campaign mentioned.
The board mentioned in a press release they’re supporting Harris, partially, as a result of she “is the one candidate who has at all times been a good friend and advocate to the Black Church and religion communities throughout the nation.”
On the Nationwide Baptist Conference in 2022 in Houston, Harris, who sang in her church choir as a child, mentioned rising up she “realized within the Bible of the numerous teachings in regards to the ever-present stress between darkness and lightweight.”
“And I realized, in these moments, how necessary it’s to acknowledge the ability of religion,” she added.
Vice President Kamala Harris (C) speaks with religion leaders together with Reverend Dr. Amos Brown (R) about reproductive well being care throughout a roundtable on the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor on the sidelines of the IX Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, June 6, 2022.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Photos, FILE
The vice chairman has mentioned she typically turns towards her religion.
“In moments of uncertainty and confusion, when the way in which isn’t clear, it’s religion that guides us ahead — religion in what we regularly can not see but know to be true,” Harris advised the African Methodist Episcopal Ladies’s Missionary Conference final yr in Orlando.
The day President Joe Biden deserted his run for reelection in July, as Harris made greater than 100 calls to work to safe assist for the Democratic nomination, a kind of calls was to Brown, mentioned has mentioned.
“I wanted to speak to God, , and to hope,” Harris mentioned Tuesday on ABC’s “The View” of creating Brown considered one of her first calls.
Former President Donald Trump has vowed to guard non secular liberties in an effort to enchantment to evangelicals. The previous president has additionally touted his Christianity.
Former President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump onstage after talking at Turning Level Motion’s “The Believers Summit” in West Palm Seashore, Fla., on July 26, 2024.
Chandan Khanna/AFP by way of Getty Photos, FIle
In July, Trump spoke to a Christian conservative crowd at Turning Level Motion’s Believers Summit in West Palm Seashore the place he reiterated that the ability of prayer and the grace of Almighty God saved his life within the assassination try in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“We need to thank every one of many believers on this room on your prayers and your unbelievable assist. I actually did respect it. One thing was working, that we all know, one thing was working,” Trump mentioned. “I stand earlier than you tonight, because of the ability of prayer and the grace of Almighty God.”
The Black church has performed a serious position in — and sometimes led — civil rights and political actions, and in fostering activism within the U.S. for generations, together with the combat for voting rights and towards Jim Crow.
The political affect of the church is one thing Harris has publicly acknowledged and leaned on.
At that 2023 Orlando convention, Harris known as on attendees to “allow us to shine a lightweight on the trail ahead.”
“And as we accomplish that, allow us to combat with optimism, with religion and with hope,” she went on to say. “As a result of because the historical past of our nation and the historical past of this church tells us: Once we combat, we win.”
Harris’ new “Souls to the Polls” effort comes as Black assist for Democrats have softened in recent times.
A September Fox Information survey discovered 29% of Black respondents mentioned they might vote for Trump over Harris, a double-digit leap from the 12% who mentioned they voted for him within the 2020 election, in accordance with ABC Information exit polling.
On Thursday, whereas visiting a Democratic marketing campaign discipline workplace in Pittsburgh, former President Barack Obama mentioned “primarily based on reviews I am getting from campaigns and communities … we now have not but seen the identical sorts of power and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities, as we noticed after I was working,” amongst Black voters, notably Black males.
Obama chided Black males for making “excuses” for not voting for Harris, alleging a part of it could be primarily based in misogyny, saying it was “not acceptable.”
