WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Former President Donald Trump has heavily courted since his arrival on the political scene almost a decade ago. Now he is selling , touting 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 report on the evangelicals supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.
Exploiting cracks in Trump鈥檚 evangelical base
Trump has historically maintained 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 have waffled over whether he would 鈥痵hould he become president.
The Rev. Dwight McKissic, a Baptist pastor from Texas who spoke on the Evangelicals for Harris call, said he saw no 鈥渕oral superiority of one party over the other,鈥� citing the GOP鈥檚 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鈥檛 agree with Harris on all policies. 鈥淏ut at the same time, she has a pro-family platform,鈥� he said, citing her education policies and promise to .
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鈥檚 president, said they鈥檙e expanding the operation and looking to鈥痵pend 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 鈥渂orn-again鈥� or 鈥渆vangelical鈥� 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鈥� 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 changed as the term has grown more connected with Republican voters.
Latasha Morrison told the AP that as a Black woman, she didn鈥檛 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 鈥渟how that there are other voices in the church aside from the religious right and Trump evangelicals.鈥�
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP鈥檚 with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Curtis Yee And Tiffany Stanley, The Associated Press
