Trump moves to lock up Christian vote amid Harris gaffes and insults from prominent Democrats

Former President Donald Trump is looking to lock up support among American Christians and drive turnout among that bloc as Vice President Kamala Harris appears to be turning practitioners of the world’s largest religion away from her campaign.

Trump has held multiple events in recent weeks with Christian leaders, encouraging them to vote and noting that the generally conservative voting bloc does not do so at high rates.

"On November 5, Christian voters need to turn out in the largest numbers ever," Trump insisted at an event in Concord, N.C. "Do you know that if you did that because you have a reputation of not voting proportionately like you should?"

Trump’s appeal comes amid concerns that millions of Christians are planning not to vote in the November election. A Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University study published earlier this month found that 51% of “people of faith” were likely to vote. Though the study is a warning for Republicans, Trump seems to think he can turn them out in light by pointing to Harris’s gaffes and policies affecting Christians.

"Wrong rally"

Harris' remarks when confronted with recognizing Christianity went viral last week over an incident in which she told Christians who shouted “Jesus is Lord!” that they were at the “wrong rally.” “I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street," she added. The people who shouted were forced to leave the venue. The Trump campaign subsequently turned the clip into a campaign ad, featuring Trump stating “[w]e love Christians, we welcome believers, and we embrace followers of Jesus.”

Speaking on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show this week, Trump expressed incredulity that the gaffe had not effectively crushed Harris’s presidential prospects, observing that the nation’s values had evidently changed.

“Well, usually that would be the end of the campaign. When you say something stupid, like she said, that would be the end of the campaign,” he said. “And I saw the young men, and they made the statement, and she said, ‘you're at the wrong rally.’”

“You know, the old days when a lot of things were different and values were different …, that would be the end of a campaign,” he added. “You just say, ‘let's wrap it up.’ But you know, she's getting away with murder.”

Trump, for his part, has held multiple events with faith leaders in recent weeks, including the 11th-hour faith leaders meeting in Concord, N.C. On Wednesday, moreover, he spoke at a Believers and Ballots Faith Town Hall in Zebulon, Ga., alongside Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, R-Ga.

In Concord, Trump warned that Harris is “very destructive to Christianity, and very destructive to evangelicals and to the Catholic Church.”

“But while Kamala says that people who believe in Jesus don't belong to her rallies, you have to remember that that's as loud as it can be,” he said. “Fact, a lot of people said that would be disqualifying for her. That would be a disqualification in our movement, we love Christians.”

Mockery of Catholicism

Harris' supporters, specifically Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer aren't helping, and in fact, may be fueling the narrative that Democrats -- and by extension Harris -- are anti-religion.

Whitmer posted a bizarre video of herself holding a mock Eucharist, giving a Dorito instead of a communion wafer to influencer Liz Plank. In the video, a smiling Plank takes the "communion" in ecstasy, and the video ends with a shot of Whitmer, wearing a camouflage baseball cap embroidered with “Harris” and “Walz.”

Many people of faith were not amused. According to Catholic publication The Dialog, Michigan's bishops expressed "profound disappointment and offense" to Catholics in reaction to Whitmer's stunt. “Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer insulted Catholics nationwide when she intentionally ridiculed the Eucharist in a video,” Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, wrote in a statement, according to The Hill.

Whitmer later issued a "non-apology" apology for the way the video “had been construed.”

Religious Liberty 

In his Georgia speech, Trump further warned that Harris and the “radical left” would not “leave Christians alone” and that the adherent of the world’s largest religion “would suffer greatly.” He then elaborated on Biden-Harris administration policies that ran afoul of Christian ethics, such as myriad transgender mandates.

“Your religious liberty will be gone, your free speech will be gone, your second amendment will be gone, and parental rights will be gone forever,” he warned. “So I'm here tonight to deliver a simple message to Christians across America, It's time to stand up and save your country.”

Trump’s appearance in Zebulon on Wednesday, Trump fielded a question about the Arizona Christian University study. Trump expressed optimism that Christians had begun to realize their own low participation in voting had led to some of the developments they disliked.

“If you look over the last 30 years or so, for whatever reason, Christians are not tremendous voters in terms of percentage,” Trump replied. “If they were, we’d never lose an election. We wouldn't have had these people in office and we would never lose an election.”

“I think we've really energized a lot of people this time because they've seen how bad it is,” he went on. “This last four years has been, it's been a horror show, an absolute horror show. And I think, I think we're going to see those numbers go way up.”

Trump also pointed to the persecution of Catholics under the Biden administration. His campaign previously launched the “Catholics for Trump” coalition in September to galvanize that portion of the Christian electorate.

Delivering a concise message to his audience in Zebulon, Trump simply said “when you have faith, when you believe in God, it's a big advantage over people that don't have that. It's a big advantage.”