Evangelicals for Harris leader: 'The Lord is with us' despite polls
No matter what the polling might say, Baptist minister and longtime Christian environmental advocate, the Rev. Jim Ball, says momentum will carry Vice President Kamala Harris to victory in Tuesday’ election.
Ball, who has spent the past few months leading the charge for Evangelicals for Harris, which was previously known as Evangelicals for Biden, is working to win over support for Harris in the 2024 presidential race. He told Vanity Fair he’s optimistic despite most polls showing the presidential race as a statistical toss-up.
"The Lord is with us, even if the polls aren’t," he told the magazine. "It would be more comforting if the polls were better, but the momentum is definitely on our side."
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The group aims to tap into a minority of Evangelicals who have consistently voted Democratic, even in an election cycle where Evangelical voters — and particularly white Evangelicals — identify as Republican voters.
Since its launch, Evangelicals for Harris has invested over $1 million in ads designed to make the Christian case for Harris, drawing on biblical teachings that emphasize love, justice and care for the vulnerable. One of those ads, which featured the likeness of the late evangelist Billy Graham, drew scrutiny from Franklin Graham, who sent a cease-and-desist letter to Evangelicals for Harris in October demanding the group remove the ads.
But for Ball, Billy Graham is the quintessential spokesman for the Harris campaign.
“Reverend Graham is reminding us what Jesus taught, which is everybody’s neighbor, especially the person in distress. That’s the point of the parable of the Good Samaritan, and that is also what has guided Vice President Harris,” he told Vanity Fair. “In terms of reaching out to those who are vulnerable and protecting the vulnerable, that’s what her career has been about.”
Ball said his team is particularly focused on swing states where Evangelical voters could make a decisive difference in tight races, and he believes Harris will prevail in the end.
“So my gut sense of how things are going is that we’re going to win this thing,” he said. “So I’d love for it to be not so close right now in the polls and all that, but I think the momentum is definitely on our side. I think there’s going to be a lot of Harris voters turning up to the polls. The motivation is high.”
When it comes to mobilizing Evangelicals, he said the Harris campaign’s strategy is actually based on a “high watermark” from former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, which drew Evangelical participation to about 26%.
One of the issues Ball and his group are hoping will yield results at the ballot box is abortion, particularly since the Dobbs decision in 2022. Ball believes that Harris’ pro-family policies and commitment to healthcare, along with Trump’s vision of leaving the abortion issue up to the states, could be pivotal for motivating Evangelicals to vote for the Democratic ticket.
“There’s no truly anti-abortion candidate in this race," Ball was quoted as saying. "Trump has said it’s up to the states, and that leaves room for states to allow abortion. Many pro-life voters are disappointed by that, and I think it could depress a lot of Evangelical votes for him."
In the interview, Ball said his group's mission was to “put forward a positive vision of Christianity” by electing Democrat candidates.
“The simplest way for us as Christians to think about this is to remember that Jesus is Lord, and Caesar is not. That was an important message in the New Testament,” he explained. “We’ve been given this gift of citizenship. Because we’re in a representative democracy, we get to elect those who are the head of the government in that way.
“We also have this awesome responsibility as citizens of representative democracy to cast our votes in keeping with loving our neighbor and protecting the vulnerable.”
