Meet the Evangelicals Who Are Trying to Make the Case for Vice President Harris

Donald Trump won the support of more than 80% of white evangelicals in 2016 and 2020, but a new group is making an aggressive effort to convince some of those voters to support Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The political action committee Evangelicals for Harris is running a series of digital ads, including one that shows archival video footage of the late evangelical preacher Billy Graham in which he asks, “Have you been to the cross and said, ‘Lord, I have sinned’?”

Those words were juxtaposed with a recording of Trump being asked during a public appearance in 2015: “Have you ever asked God for forgiveness?”

Trump responds: “I’m not sure I did. I just don’t bring God into the picture. I don’t.”

Evangelicals for Harris is also running an ad on various digital platforms, including YouTube, in which Kamala Harris talks about her beliefs. The ad is called “Fruits of the Spirit” and features Harris saying during her speech: “Faith motivates action. It lifts us up and gives us purpose.”

In addition to these online ads, the group is partnering with local activists to organize live events in swing states. One of those leaders is self-identified evangelical Christian and Milwaukee resident Patricia Ruiz-Cantu.

“Here in Wisconsin,” he says, “we do faith rallies. And we bring together different congregations to talk about values ​​and listen to their concerns and try to figure out how we can work together.”

Ruiz-Cantu knows that some evangelical voters may disagree with Harris on her position on abortion. But she believes those same voters can be persuaded on other issues that are deeply rooted in the Christian tradition.

“The Bible says we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves,” she says. “Jesus Christ came for the needy. He says, ‘I’m going to ask you, have you seen me hungry? Have you fed me? Have you seen me thirsty? Have you given me water?’”

Some evangelicals want to expand the discussion on values

Among the key issues of Evangelicals for Harris are health care, poverty and the environment. The group’s founder, The Rev. Jim Ball, calls them “family values” because they support real families. And he chose these values because the Bible tells him so.

“Jesus was on the side of the defenseless,” says Ball, who lives in Vienna, Va., outside Washington. “He always helped the defenseless. So in our society, we are particularly concerned about the defenseless. And so we look and say, well, whose policies are more consistent with protecting the defenseless and defending the defenseless?”

For Ball, the answer is Kamala Harris. He has often questioned his evangelical heritage and his evangelical siblings on certain issues. He has led the Evangelical Environmental Network and is the author of the book Global Warming and the Risen Lord: Christian Discipleship and Climate Change.

Ball says the Evangelicals for Harris message is resonating with many people, pointing to the more than 200,000 people who have signed up to attend local rallies and town meetings so far, including those who might be less likely to participate.

For some evangelicals, the transition to Harris is complicated

Rev. Lee Scott is a Presbyterian minister in Pittsburgh who has been a registered Republican since he was 18. “I cast my first vote for George W. Bush,” he says proudly.

But because of Trump and his dominance of the GOP over the past decade, Scott is talking to friends, family and other clergy in his swing state of Pennsylvania about why he supports the Harris-Walz campaign. It’s a nuanced and complicated conversation.

“They have a lot of political positions that I personally don’t support,” Scott says. “We’re very different on the issue of abortion. But we have to do more than just say, ‘Abortion is wrong.’”

Scott says Harris is answering questions Republicans failed to answer in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling striking down federal abortion rights.

“So how are we going to support new mothers? How are we going to allocate funds for that?” she asks. “And that’s part of her (Harris’) plan. I like that she wants to expand the child tax credit,” which Scott said would help support people who might otherwise choose to end their pregnancies out of fear they won’t be able to afford a child.

Other evangelicals consider abortion unacceptable

Still, many conservative Christians oppose evangelicals for Harris. Billy Graham’s son, Franklin Graham, has questioned the use of his father’s image and words in the evangelicals’ ad for Harris. In a post on X, Graham said he “appreciates the conservative values ​​and policies of President” Trump and would still do so if he were alive today.

Another prominent evangelical leader, Michael Brown, used a recent episode of his popular show Line of fire a podcast and radio show in which the author argues that abortion is unacceptable.

“Only this one because it affects the most innocent, the most defenseless,” Brown told his audience. “Only this one because the Bible talks about shedding innocent blood and doing anything to harm the least of these.”

For decades, evangelicals have focused their political efforts on two main areas: opposition to abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights. But that’s not the whole story, says Democrat and Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who is also working with evangelicals for Harris.

“When I open my Bible,” says the politician, who is also a theological student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, “I see over 2,000 verses on economic justice and none on abortion or gay rights.”

Of course, Evangelicals for Harris’ message — focused on poverty, health care and the environment — won’t resonate with most conservative Christians, Talarico acknowledges. But he says their proposal doesn’t have to.

“We don’t have to win everybody,” he says. “We have to win enough to win this election.”

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