Harris marketing campaign launches ‘Souls to the Polls’ effort to sway Black churchgoers as Election Day approaches

Norman Ray

World Courant

Vice President Kamala Harris’ marketing campaign is launching its “Souls to the Polls” marketing campaign this weekend to rally Black churchgoers in battleground states as Election Day approaches, a marketing campaign official advised ABC Information.

With lower than 30 days till Election Day, the marketing campaign’s multi-pronged efforts will result in Harris himself visiting Black church buildings in battleground states. The get-out-the-vote program additionally contains the creation of a religion advisory council, made up of ten outstanding religion leaders – together with Harris’ pastor, Dr. Amos C. Brown III, who leads Third Baptist Church in San Francisco. – which can contain black church buildings throughout the nation.

Along with Brown, the board contains religion leaders, taking part in a private capability, from throughout the nation, together with: Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, 132nd elected and ordained bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, 117th elected and ordained 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 September 8, 2022 in Houston.

Brandon Bell/Getty Photographs, FILE

The trouble will start Sunday with a nationwide name that includes gospel performers, religion leaders and elected officers, the marketing campaign mentioned.

The board mentioned in an announcement that they’re supporting Harris partly as a result of she is “the one candidate who has at all times been a good friend and advocate for the Black Church and religion communities throughout the nation.”

On the 2022 Nationwide Baptist Conference in Houston, Harris, who sang in her church choir as a baby, mentioned that rising up she “realized from the Bible’s many teachings concerning the ever-present rigidity between darkness and light-weight.”

“And I realized in these moments how vital it’s to acknowledge the ability of religion,” she added.

Vice President Kamala Harris (C) speaks with religion leaders, together with Rev. Dr. Amos Brown (R) on reproductive well being care throughout a Los Angeles County Federation of Labor roundtable on the sidelines of the IX Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, June 6, 2022.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP through Getty Photographs, FILE

The vice chairman has mentioned she typically turns to her religion.

“In moments of uncertainty and confusion, when the best way is just not clear, it’s religion that guides us ahead – religion in what we frequently can’t see and but understand it to be true,” Harris advised the African Methodist Episcopal Girls’s occasion final 12 months Missionary Conference. Orlando.

The day President Joe Biden deserted his re-election bid in July, when Harris made greater than 100 calls to safe assist for the Democratic nomination, a type of calls was to Brown, he mentioned.

“I needed to speak to God, you already know, and pray,” Harris mentioned Tuesday on ABC’s “The View,” making one among her first cellphone calls to Brown.

Former President Donald Trump has vowed to guard non secular freedoms in an effort to enchantment to evangelicals. The previous president has additionally touted his Christianity.

Former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on stage after talking at Turning Level Motion’s “The Believers Summit” in West Palm Seashore, Florida, on July 26, 2024.

Chandan Khanna/AFP through Getty Photographs, 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 wish to thank all of the believers on this room in your prayers and your unimaginable assist. I actually appreciated it. One thing labored, we all know, one thing labored,” Trump mentioned. “I stand earlier than you tonight, by way of the ability of prayer and the grace of Almighty God.”

For generations, the Black Church has performed an vital function in – and infrequently led – civil rights and political actions, and in selling activism within the US, together with the combat for voting rights and towards Jim Crow.

The church’s political affect is one thing Harris has publicly acknowledged and leaned on.

At that 2023 convention in Orlando, Harris known as on attendees to “shine a lightweight on the best way ahead.”

“And as we do this, allow us to combat with optimism, with religion and with hope,” she continued. “As a result of, because the historical past of our nation and the historical past of this Church tells us, after we combat, we win.”

Harris’ new “Souls to the Polls” effort comes at a time when black assist for Democrats has declined lately.

A September Fox Information ballot discovered that 29% of Black respondents mentioned they might vote for Trump over Harris, a double-digit soar from the 12% who mentioned they voted for him within the 2020 election, in line with ABC Information exit polls.

Throughout a go to to a Democratic marketing campaign area workplace in Pittsburgh on Thursday, former President Barack Obama mentioned: “Primarily based on studies I am getting from campaigns and communities … we have not seen the identical form of power and turnout in all of our neighborhoods and communities. .” communities, as we noticed once I was a candidate,” amongst black voters, particularly black males.

Obama chided black males for making “excuses” for not voting for Harris, claiming a few of it could possibly be primarily based on misogyny, saying it was “not acceptable.”

Harris marketing campaign launches ‘Souls to the Polls’ effort to sway Black churchgoers as Election Day approaches

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