Trump visits Georgia church in push for Christian voters. How do they feel about him?
Despite an unseasonably warm day Wednesday, more than 1,000 people fought traffic to see former President Donald Trump at Christ Chapel in the small town of Zebulon, in Pike County.
The town hall was geared at affirming Trump as “a vocal defender of religious freedom and an unwavering supporter of Jewish communities,” his campaign said. With the largely religious crowd onhand, it was a chance for Trump to speak directly to a demographic that has shown him strong support in the past — white evangelical Christian voters — in a race where both parties have sought to emphasize faith.
It wasn’t the first time Trump has made an appeal to the faithful, though. On Monday, Trump made a stop at the 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting in Concord, North Carolina, where he promised to create a task force to target “anti-Christian bias” and framed his survival of a July assassination attempt against him as an act of divine intervention.
Courting Christians
Both Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris have worked to energize Christian voters in their push for the White House.
On the campaign trail, Harris has discussed attending services as a child and her ties to the Black church. She also stopped at two churches in Georgia Sunday, coinciding with the campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” efforts to motivate Black Christian voters.
Trump has often incorporated religious appeals in his rhetoric and campaign promises. He has voiced support for prayers in public schools, declaring in 2020 at an Oval Office event that the government must “never stand between the people and God.”
Wednesday’s event saw attendees pour in from Zebulon and neighboring areas, many of whom identify as Christians and wore crosses and other religious symbols to the event.
Trump attacked Harris’ ties to Christianity and portrayed her as a threat to Christians at both his North Carolina event and his town hall in Zebulon.
“School boards are being persecuted, parents are being persecuted,” Trump said during his appearance in Zebulon. “People are being persecuted, religious people.”
When Harris was mentioned, a man in the crowd shouted, “She’s Satan!”
Trump also touted his support for Israel, including his 2017 decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv.
The move was widely criticized by the international community, including U.S. allies. The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting in which 14 out of the 15 members voted to condemn the move.
How do religious voters feel about Trump?
Trump has enjoyed broad support from white evangelical Christians in his political pursuits.
According to the Associated Press, 8 in 10 white evangelical voters supported Trump in the 2020 election.
Before Trump’s Zebulon town hall began, the church’s pastor, Billy Smith, expressed his and other Christians in the area’s support for Trump, and said he was praying for the success of the campaign.
Ralph Reed, head of the conservative political action group Faith & Freedom Coalition, said Trump would return America to Christian values.
“It’s time to get to the biblical principles upon which this nation was built,” Reed said. “It’s time for Christians to be the head of the political system and not the tail.”
However, other Christian demographics are not so staid, and some have outright rebuked Trump and his rhetoric.
Among all Americans who attend church services monthly or more often, 59% supported Trump while 40% supported Biden, according to the Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, Black voters overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020 regardless of how often they attended religious services.
At Trump’s event geared at religious people in North Carolina, a coalition of faith leaders spoke out against Trump, accusing him of misusing faith-based organizations and criticizing his decision to sell Trump-branded Bibles earlier this year.
Bishop Leah Daughtry, one of the faith leaders who spoke out, expressed anger at Trump’s jokes during the Al E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner, a banquet for a New York-based Catholic charity. The jokes mocked Harris and included remarks widely criticized as being vulgar and inappropriate.
“Just last week, Trump turned a Catholic charity dinner into a venue for vulgar insults aimed at his political rivals. He has told members of our Christian faith that they should vote for him because they will never have to vote again,” Daughtry told WUNC, a radio station based in Charlotte.
Attendees at Wednesday’s event took to Trump’s efforts to reach Christians, even as the event sometimes swerved into other areas of policy such as inflation and the border. Chants of Trump’s name and “Jesus” could be heard often.
“Our country needs a revival of a spiritual awakening,” Billy Smith said. “Come on, America, let’s go after God.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 5:00 AM.