Vice President Kamala Harris has sought to motivate faith voters with her “souls to the polls” effort in Black churches, but she has also become her own worst enemy with misfires on religion-related issues.
Two days after speaking to churchgoers in Georgia, the Democratic presidential candidate rejected the idea of allowing a religious or any other exemption in abortion rights legislation.
“I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body,” Ms. Harris told NBC News in a Tuesday interview.
Christian leaders accused her of putting unimpeded abortion access ahead of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion.
“Kamala Harris should clarify, and quickly, whether given the chance she would force Americans who object on religious or conscience grounds to participate in abortion,” said Grazie Pozo Christie, senior fellow at the Catholic Association. “Sadly, it would not be the first time Harris has used her political power to trample the rights of religious Americans.”
The conservative group CatholicVote wondered: “Why would any Christian vote for her?”
SEE ALSO: Harris struggles to name top policy goal if elected president
Ms. Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump are courting faith voters as the election enters its final stretch.
Thirty-two million churchgoing Christians are planning to sit out the Nov. 5 election, according to an Oct. 11 survey by evangelical pollster George Barna. He said these voters are “low-hanging fruit” for political candidates.
Ms. Harris spoke at services over the weekend at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest and Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro, where Stevie Wonder performed.
“Our country is at a crossroads, and where we go from here is up to us as Americans and as people of faith,” Ms. Harris told parishioners.
Days before that, however, she skipped the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a Catholic-hosted event that every invited presidential candidate had attended since 1984 when Democrat Walter Mondale took a pass.
Ms. Harris sent a video, but her absence handed Mr. Trump an open campaign venue. He rubbed elbows with Cardinal Timothy Dolan and regaled the audience with jokes blasting his opponent.
“Catholics, you’ve got to vote for me. You’d better remember that I’m here and she’s not,” Mr. Trump told the cheering crowd at the Oct. 17 fundraiser for Catholic charities.
No one should be surprised here. Harris has a history of both abortion extremism and religious liberty violations. I documented it here at @firstthingsmag https://t.co/tnRR8p5RzU https://t.co/yT85BEbICo
— Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) October 23, 2024
Debate is also still raging over whether she insulted faith-based voters when she told Christian hecklers at an Oct. 17 campaign event that “you guys are at the wrong rally.”
She gave the retort after three people at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse rally shouted, “Christ is King,” “Jesus is Lord” and “Lies. Lies. That’s a lie,” in response to her remarks in support of abortion rights, according to a Snopes investigation.
The White House transcript listed only the “lies” remark, but Republicans accused Ms. Harris of telling Christians that they were attending “the wrong rally.” The Harris campaign has not commented.
“Kamala has made it clear that she DOES NOT want YOUR vote,” Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Democrat, said on X. “She skips key Catholic events. They mock Communion. And she even told voters who believe ‘Jesus is Lord’ & ‘Christ is King’ that they were at the ‘WRONG RALLY.’”
Unlike President Biden, Ms. Harris may not benefit from religion.
Mr. Biden won the Catholic vote by 52% to 47% in 2020 despite his pro-choice stance on abortion, but he is a lifelong Catholic who speaks frequently about his faith.
Ms. Harris, a Baptist whose mother was Hindu, isn’t known as a regular churchgoer. Neither, for that matter, is Mr. Trump, a thrice-married Presbyterian who has been criticized for using crass language.
Even so, he received an enthusiastic reception Monday at a gathering of faith leaders in Concord, North Carolina, where he said that Ms. Harris is “very destructive to religion.”
“She’s very destructive to Christianity, very destructive to evangelicals, to the Catholic Church,” Mr. Trump said. “Let me put it this way: She is your worst nightmare, much worse than Biden, and he wasn’t so hot.”
CatholicVote President Brian Burch said that “Joe Biden at least made some attempt to appeal to Catholics as someone who claimed to share their faith, but Harris has displayed only anti-Catholic animus.”
“Catholics hear Kamala’s message loud and clear: ’You’re at the wrong rally,’” Mr. Burch said.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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