Evangelicals for Harris ad campaign uses Trump’s comments on faith against him

A group of Vice President Kamala Harris’s supporters released their first media spot on Wednesday in an effort to win over Christian voters who are lukewarm on former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Evangelicals for Harris, a 501(c)(4) organization associated with Faith Voters, released a new ad that featured remarks from an interview between GOP pollster Frank Luntz and Trump before he was a candidate in the presidential race in 2015 at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa. During that conversation, Trump talked about his Christian faith but said he never sought forgiveness for his sins, in response to a question from Luntz.

The ad begins with a video clip of the Rev. Billy Graham preaching about the act of asking for forgiveness and then cuts to a clip of the interview from 2015, in which Trump said he is unsure he’s ever asked for forgiveness, telling Luntz, “I’m not sure I have. … I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.”

The spot then shows text on the screen: “Is there any greater denial of Christ than to say, ‘I do not need his forgiveness?’”

The ad will begin on social media and then will be featured on TV in swing states and will be targeting conservative Christian media websites, according to reporting from the Christian Broadcasting Network. The new ad drop comes on the same day the group will be hosting a Zoom call featuring activist Ekemini Uwan. 

The group describes Harris’s faith journey on their website, describing her as a “deeply committed and faithful Christian.” The website also emphasizes the Democratic nominee for president has “great respect” for other faith traditions, mentioning her Indian relatives and her embracing Jewish traditions with her husband, Doug Emhoff. The organization said it already has over 200,000 evangelical Christians who have signed a pledge to volunteer and vote for the Harris-Walz ticket.  

​“Especially now that she is at the pinnacle of power, Vice President Harris keeps her trusting relationship with God at the center,” the website said. John Pavlovitz, an organizer for the group, recently told NPR the organization is aiming to bring together moderate and progressive Christians. 

“The conversation on spirituality has been hijacked by the Christian right,” Pavlovitz said in an interview with NPR. “I think, in some ways, the Democratic Party has often ceded the conversation on spirituality to the Republican Party, and we just want to offer a dissenting opinion.”

Trump has had a grip on this critical group of voters who have become some of his most reliable supporters since the 2016 general election. According to the Pew Research Center, 85% of white evangelical voters who attended church regularly voted for Trump in 2020, expanding his margins from when he received 77% of support from the critical group when he ran against Hillary Clinton. 

In the Republican primary, even though voters in early primaries had several conservative Christian candidates running, Trump still dominated among this critical group of voters.  In the Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina Republican primary contests earlier this year, Trump won between 55% and 69% of white evangelical voters, according to AP VoteCast.

Trump’s campaign events at times can resemble a worship service. Earlier this year, the former president shared a “God Made Trump” video that depicted him as a messianic figure. After avoiding an attempted assassination, Trump has been quick to credit divine assistance. 

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However, the former president has faced controversy in some religious circles after comparing himself to Jesus Christ on multiple occasions. During the June 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Trump made an appearance at Washington, D.C.’s St John’s Church, which had been vandalized. He was photographed holding up a Bible, which some accused him of using as a prop. 

The former president was scrutinized after selling a patriotic copy of the Bible for $60 earlier this year. After making the announcement of the new merchandise on social media, criticism began to flow in calling the move “sacrilege,” “heresy” and “borderline offensive.” 

After President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and endorsed Harris, the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition aimed to inform voters of what they called the vice president’s “disastrous record.”

“By the time ballots are cast in November, Faith & Freedom Coalition will ensure every voter of faith is familiar with Harris’ failure to secure our border and protect America’s most vulnerable and voiceless,” the group said in a statement recently. 

“Harris has consistently rejected widely popular protections for unborn babies and endorsed abortion through all nine months of pregnancy — even proudly campaigning at an abortion clinic earlier this summer,” the group added.