This story was updated on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, at 5:58 p.m.
The turnout of millions of voters who are driven to the polls by their religious faith could be key to deciding key battleground states, including Georgia.
A rally featuring former President Donald Trump inside Duluth’s Gas South Arena earlier this month had the feel of a religious revival, both in tone and content.
Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative Turning Point Action, which organized the rally, spoke of Trump’s arrival into politics in divine terms. Kirk was also direct about Christian pastors not politically involved.
“You need to lovingly challenge pastors that are silent, that you have a biblical obligation to engage in this election, that you have a biblical obligation to fight evil and to exalt righteousness.”
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After Vice President Kamala Harris walked off the stage at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a black megachurch in Lithonia, Pastor Jamal Bryant read from the Bible.
“Esther Chapter 4 verse number 14, for if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? But you came into this position for such a time as this.”
The Buckhead Library is a Fulton County early voting location. And on Oct. 21, two important figures voted minutes apart — by chance.
Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the conservative Faith & Freedom Coalition, believes turning out of voters of faith in battleground states will likely decide the presidential outcome.
“We’re tracking about 26 million voters in the battleground states that are either pro-life Roman Catholics, faithful Roman Catholics or conservative evangelical Christians. We know how many are voting every single day. We’re ahead of where we were four years ago. We feel good about where we are, but we’re not taking anything for granted.”
Reed says his organization could knock more than 9 million doors in the battleground states by election day.
Also voting at the Buckhead Library, Martin Luther King III, son of the civil rights icon, talked about the role of the church after casting his ballot.
“Certainly souls to the polls has a significant role to play every election cycle. This one is as critically important as those in the past have been. I also think that there’s a lot of money, there’s a lot of momentum around it all over the country and especially in light of the fact that some have tried to change voting provisions, putting restrictions in place to make it harder for people to vote.”
In-person early voting ends Friday. Election Day is Tuesday.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly transcribed “souls to the polls.”
