WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� When the Rev. Lee Scott publicly endorsed Kamala Harris for president during the Evangelicals for Harris Zoom call on Aug. 14, the Presbyterian pastor and farmer said he was taking a risk.
鈥淭he easy thing for us to do this year would be to keep our heads down, go to the ballot box, keep our vote secret and go about our business,鈥� Scott told the group, which garnered roughly 3,200 viewers according to organizers. 鈥淏ut at this time, I just can鈥檛 do that.鈥�
Scott lives in Butler, Pennsylvania, the same town where a would-be assassin in July. Scott told The Associated Press that the attack and its pushed him to speak out against Trump and the 鈥渧itriol鈥� and 鈥渁cceptable violence鈥� he normalized in politics.
Trump has maintained among white evangelical voters. According to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of the electorate, about 8 in 10 white evangelical voters cast a ballot for him in 2020. But a small and diverse coalition of evangelicals is looking to pull their fellow believers away from the former president鈥檚 fold, offering not only an alternate candidate to support but an alternate vision for their faith altogether.
鈥淚 am tired of watching meanness, bigotry and recreational cruelty be the worldly witness of our faith,鈥� Scott said on the call. 鈥淚 want transformation, and transformation is risky business.鈥�
Exploiting cracks in Trump鈥檚 evangelical base
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 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 decision to 鈥渁bandon a commitment to ban abortion with a constitutional amendment鈥� and to soften its stance against same-sex marriage in its party platform.
Though he has historically voted Republican, McKissic said he would vote for Harris, whom he said has stronger character and qualifications.
鈥淚 certainly don鈥檛 agree with her on all matters of policy,鈥� said Scott, who identifies as evangelical and is ordained in the mainline Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 鈥淚 am pro-life. I am against abortion. But at the same time, she has a pro-family platform,鈥� citing Harris鈥� education policies and promise to .
Grassroots groups like Evangelicals for Harris are hoping they can convince evangelicals who feel similarly to support Harris instead of voting for Trump or sitting out the election altogether.
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 evangelical voters, but performed better with evangelicals 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 around one-third have a favorable opinion of her. The majority 鈥� around 8 in 10 鈥� of white evangelicals have a negative view of Harris.
Vote Common Good, a similar group run by progressive evangelical pastor Doug Pagitt, has a simple message: Political identity and religious identity are not a package deal.
鈥砊here鈥檚 a whole group who have become very uncomfortable voting for Trump,鈥� Pagitt said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not trying to get them to change their mind. We鈥檙e trying to work with them once their minds have changed to act on that change.鈥�
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. With less than two months until Election Day, she wants to harness the power of grassroots groups to quickly engage even more faith voters.
鈥淲e want to turn out our base, and we think we have some real potential here to reach folks who have voted Republican in the past,鈥� Butler said.
They are 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, who grew up evangelical in Georgia, said the Harris campaign can find common ground with evangelicals, particularly suburban evangelical women.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a whole range of issues that they care about,鈥� she said, citing compassionate approaches to immigration and abortion. 鈥淭hey know that the way to address any pro-life concerns is really to support women.鈥�
A tough sell
Even for evangelicals who dislike Trump, it can be difficult to support a Democrat.
Russell Jeung, a co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and speaker on the Evangelicals for Harris call, told AP that the group doesn鈥檛 鈥渁gree with everything that Harris stands for鈥� and that evangelicals can 鈥渉old the party accountable by being involved.鈥�
Others on the call noted they would use their vote to pressure Harris on issues where they disagreed, with Latina evangelical activist Sandra Maria Van Opstal saying she鈥檇 push the potential Harris administration 鈥渢o do better on Palestine-Israel and do better on immigration.鈥�
Soong-Chan Rah, a professor of evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, describes himself as a nonpartisan progressive evangelical and a 鈥減rophet speaking to broken systems.鈥� Though he鈥檚 never endorsed a candidate before, he said the stakes of this election are so high that he wanted to throw his public support behind Harris.
鈥淣ot only do I find this candidate, Trump, repugnant and repulsive,鈥� Rah said, 鈥渋t is to such an extreme that I want to endorse his opposition.鈥�
But the chorus of evangelicals who find voting for a Democrat unconscionable remains loud.
Trump-supporting evangelical worship leader Sean Feucht ridiculed the existence of Evangelicals for Harris on X: 鈥淗ERETICS FOR HARRIS rings so much truer!鈥�
The Rev. Franklin Graham, a longtime Trump supporter, took issue with one of the group鈥檚 ads and its use of footage of his late father, the Rev. Billy Graham. 鈥淭he liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris,鈥� he wrote on his public Facebook page, which has 10 million followers.
Imagining a new evangelical identity
But the project of shoring up Democratic evangelical voters goes beyond partisan politics. It gets at the core of what evangelicalism means.
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.
鈥淢ore people are probably evangelical theologically,鈥� said Burge, 鈥渂ut they鈥檙e not going to grab that word because they don鈥檛 vote for Trump or they鈥檙e moderate or liberal.鈥�
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.
For many, evangelicalism has largely been defined along racial and socio-political lines and in endorsing Harris, Rah hopes to 鈥渟how that there are other voices in the church aside from the religious right and Trump evangelicals.鈥�
Latasha Morrison, a speaker on the Evangelicals for Harris Zoom, told the AP that as a Black woman, 鈥淚 never associated myself with the word 鈥榚vangelical鈥� until I started attending predominantly white churches.鈥�
For years her anti-abortion views led her to vote Republican, but now the Christian author and diversity trainer says, 鈥淚 feel like women and children have a better opportunity under the Harris administration than the Trump administration.鈥�
For Ball, the Evangelicals for Harris organizer, he鈥檚 not looking to 鈥渢ell people if they are an evangelical鈥� or not.
鈥淒iversity is a strength for us. We鈥檙e not we鈥檙e not looking for total unanimity. We鈥檙e looking for unity,鈥� Ball said. 鈥淲e can be united while we still have differences.鈥�
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the鈥疉P鈥檚 鈥痺ith 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
