New Birth Missionary Baptist Church was awash in pink Sunday morning, a stark contrast to the reds and blues that have dominated the 2024 presidential campaign.
It was Pink Sunday to bring attention to breast cancer. But the distinctly feminine shade also seemed a fitting backdrop for the day’s guest: Kamala Harris, who, if she is elected next month, would be the nation’s first woman president.
Locked in a tight battle with Republican Donald Trump, Harris celebrated her 60th birthday Sunday at the Black megachurch in DeKalb County Sunday appealing to faith-based voters, one of Georgia’s most important constituencies.
The congregation erupted when Pastor Jamal Bryant, welcomed Harris to the pulpit and serenaded the vice president with “Happy Birthday.”
“Who knew that 60 years ago today, that you were born to be president?” Bryant said. “To save democracy.”
Trump’s campaign is also pressing its appeal to evangelical Christians. On Wednesday, Trump is scheduled to be in Zebulon, about 50 miles south of Atlanta, with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones for a “Believers and Ballots Faith Town Hall.”
On Sunday, he briefly worked the fryer at McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. (McDonald’s has been thrust into the spotlight this campaign as Trump has claimed, without evidence, that Harris never worked at the fast food chain, as she has said).
‘The state that turns this country around’
Harris, who does not often talk publicly about her faith, cast the Nov. 5 election as a moment for Americans to choose between hate and compassion, drawing on a message of “love thy neighbor.”
She told the congregation at New Birth about growing up in church, where she said she first learned of a “loving God who asks us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, and to defend the rights of the poor and the needy.”
“For me, like for so many of us, church is then a place of growth and belonging and community, a place where we are reminded of the incredible power of faith and fellowship,” she said. “And in moments of difficulty and uncertainty when the way is not clear, it is our faith that then guides us forward.”
New Birth was the first stop on Harris’s “souls to the polls” tour. She also attended Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro.
As the 2024 presidential election enters its crucial final weeks, Harris and Trump are ramping up their efforts to appeal to their political bases. Georgia is a key battleground state that could help determine the outcome of election. More than 1 million Georgians have already cast ballots since early voting began Tuesday.
“This is Georgia, and Georgia is gonna be the state that turns this country around,” said Bishop Donald Battle, the pastor of Divine Faith Ministries International.
“People are trying to take us back, but I am letting you know that God has raised us somebody who is not going to let that happen.”
U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson and Nikema Williams as well as Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens were among the 56 elected officials at New Birth. When Bryant announced that Opal Lee, the 98-year-old Texan known as the “Mother of Juneteenth,” was in attendance, Harris sprang from her seat in the front row of the giant church and hugged her.
Unlike Saturday’s Atlanta rally of 11,000 people, Harris’s address at New Birth was more subdued in the religious setting.
“We face this question, what kind of country do we want to live in? A country of chaos, fear and hate, or a country of freedom, compassion and justice?” she asked.
Harris told the congregation that they had the power to answer that question, “not just through our words, but through our action and with our votes.”
Sunday’s focus on breast cancer also held significance for Harris; her mother was a breast cancer researcher and died of colon cancer in 2009.
‘Believers for Trump’
Republicans are also stepping up ways to reach religious voters. Trump has long maintained strong support among white, evangelical voters, but he’ll need surging turnout from them to capture Georgia.
His campaign has courted conservative evangelicals for the last decade, and he’s sold Trump-themed Bibles and promoted his selection of three U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade to energize Christians.
A September Pew Research Center survey showed Trump capturing roughly 80% of white evangelical voters and 61% of white Catholics. Harris had the most strength among Black protestants, winning 86% of their support, along with about two-thirds of Jewish voters.
On Friday, a parade of Republican leaders and evangelical heavyweights took turns on the pulpit of an Austell church bedecked with American flags to sing the former president’s praises. The event was dubbed simply “Believers for Trump.”
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Attendees said they’ve found ways to reconcile Trump’s personal history, such as his three marriages and felony conviction on hush money charges, with the conservative record he built during his term in office and his vow to forge a similar agenda if he’s elected.
Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley, who trekked to Atlanta for the event, said evangelical voters are inexorably drawn to his stances.
“When they look at the issues that they care about, for their families and for their communities, they’re going to understand that Donald Trump better represents their values,” he said in an interview.
Scott Turner, a former NFL player who pastors a Texas megachurch, issued a stern challenge to the audience. He said it was a “duty and responsibility of every Christian, every man and woman of God” to cast their ballots for “like-minded” leaders.
‘Ready to win this election?’
At Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock wasn’t convinced.
One of Harris’s most important Georgia surrogates, he warmed up the crowd before Harris arrived for the noon service. Many of the congregants had been waiting since 8 a.m.
“Are you ready to win this election?” he asked the congregation.
When Warnock asked the crowd who have already voted, more than half stood up. Close to 30,000 people have voted in Clayton County since early voting began last week.
Harris was greeted at the church by Stevie Wonder, who was in Atlanta for a concert Saturday night.
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
The music icon led the congregation in a live version of his “Happy Birthday,” altering the lyrics from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to honor Harris.
“Think about more than yourself when you vote. Think about how they want to erase history. The ugly and painful truth,” Wonder said.
He followed up with Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” and wrapped up with a verse of “Higher Ground,” while the crowd chanted, “Kamala.”
“We need a landslide to unite the country and unite the world,” Wonder told the congregation. “So handle your business.”
Earlier at New Birth, Bryant reminded people as they cheered for Harris to remember to do more — vote. He praised Black women for being strong supporters of Harris and encouraged Black men to follow suit.
“If you remain silent at this time, your family won’t survive,” Bryant said. “This is not the time to be bougie and stuck up. I am gonna challenge you today. After we leave here today, all us are gonna go down to vote.”
Closing out her speech, Harris reminded the congregation of her Black bona fides.
“Weeping may endure for a night,” said Harris, in an obvious nod to the Black church, which the congregation picked up on as they began to cheer. “But joy cometh in the morning.”
Before the end of Bryant’s sermon, he asked everyone in the congregation to stretch their hands toward Harris.
He then prayed for her protection.
