A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
With polls showing an extremely tight presidential race, both campaigns are working to make sure their voters turn out before Election Day. White evangelicals continue to make up a critical piece of the Republican base, and former President Donald Trump and his allies are working to get out the vote. But supporters of Vice President Harris are also hoping to win over some evangelical voters. Joining us now is NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon and NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose. So Sarah, let's start with you. Remind us why evangelicals are so important to Republicans.
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: So white evangelical voters overall are a shrinking part of the population, but they turn out in outsize numbers, and they reliably turn out for Republicans by and large. So, according to the Public religion Research Institute, white evangelicals make up less than 15% of the population, but about 25% of people who actually vote. In the last two elections, about 80% of those white evangelicals voted for Trump. He understands the importance of the evangelical vote and has courted them really almost from the beginning. Trump recently campaigned in North Carolina alongside a group of pastors and told an enthusiastic crowd there that his faith took on new meaning after he survived the assassination attempt in July, and he told them he thinks God saved him for a purpose.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, beyond what Trump is saying, how are his supporters trying to turn out the evangelical vote?
MCCAMMON: Right, Well, his campaign is trying to do that, and so are his supporters like Ralph Reed of the Faith & Freedom Coalition. Reed has been organizing religious conservatives for decades. I spoke to him recently. He says, this year, his organization has mustered its largest get-out-the-vote effort yet. They're focusing on millions of evangelicals and conservative Catholic voters in the seven key presidential states we talk so much about and in critical states for the makeup of Congress, states like Ohio, Montana and California.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, Jason, you've been following a group called Evangelicals for Harris. Now, in the final days before the election, what is their message?
JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: Well, to get a sense, here's part of a digital ad Evangelicals for Harris released recently.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: In the face of a perfect stranger seeing a neighbor, understanding what that love of each other means.
DEROSE: You'll notice the sound of the "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" theme music playing underneath that ad.
MARTÍNEZ: Thought I was hearing things, Jason. Yeah.
DEROSE: The group is spending about a million dollars this month to get the message out that Christian voters should be concerned about treating others with love and respect and that Kamala Harris is the candidate who does that.
MARTÍNEZ: Jason, though, to what extent do you think this message can persuade evangelical voters?
DEROSE: Well, it is a tough group to sway. As Sarah mentioned, in 2016 and 2020, white evangelicals voted for Trump in overwhelming numbers. And Evangelicals for Harris knows they're not going to persuade a lot of people. Here's Texas Democratic state Representative James Talarico explaining the strategy.
JAMES TALARICO: To win some of these swing states, we don't have to win everybody. We just have to win enough to win this election and protect our constitution.
DEROSE: Since Harris is not doing as well as Biden did with other groups such as Black men or Latinos, will enough evangelicals in as tight a race as this is be enough votes to give Harris a win?
MARTÍNEZ: So Sarah, are evangelical leaders who have been supporting Donald Trump - are they worried? Are they concerned about these efforts to win over some of his supporters for Kamala Harris?
MCCAMMON: You know, when I talked to Ralph Reed about this, he seemed pretty confident. He said his group is taking a broad message to conservative religious voters when they go door to door. They're not just talking about abortion and gender, but also about the economy and immigration issues that resonate with a broad swath of voters. And Reed points to polling data that suggests despite these efforts to win over evangelicals for Harris, most of them are still supporting Trump.
RALPH REED: We encourage Christians of all political views to go out there and make a difference and be citizens, so I wouldn't want to discourage them, but I think it's largely been a waste of time and money.
MCCAMMON: And, you know, A, progressive Christians have been trying to organize around liberal causes for many years now. And the reality is that evangelical increasingly feels like a political label in many cases as much as a theological one. So people who identify as evangelical are just likely to vote for Republicans, including Trump.
MARTÍNEZ: Jason, if Harris supporters are indeed persuading some Christian voters, I mean, who are they making a difference with?
DEROSE: Well, A, it's not just important to think about who, but where. Harris has been campaigning in swing states like Michigan, specifically around Grand Rapids, and in Pennsylvania and in Wisconsin. A lot of different groups in those places call themselves evangelicals, but they're not the ones Trump is strongest with - say, Southern Baptists. They're really more conservative mainline Protestants like Presbyterians, Christian Reformed, Lutherans, and those groups have a lot of people in these key swing states, and that's where Evangelicals for Harris thinks they can make a dent in Trump's dominance among religious voters.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. That's NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose and NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon. Thanks, you two.
DEROSE: You're welcome.
MCCAMMON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
