With Election Day one week away, the campaign for Republican nominee former President Donald Trump organized a self-titled “11th hour” meeting for faith leaders last Monday in Concord, N.C.
The event, featuring Trump, his son Eric Trump, retired neurosurgeon and former Trump administration Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, and other religious leaders, aimed to “mobilize the Christian vote, which is the largest vote in America,” Jackson Lahmeyer, founder of Pastors for Trump, told Raw Story.
“Our aim is to send all of these pastors back to their churches encouraged and willing to say to their congregation, now you gotta get out and vote in this election,” Lahmeyer said.
The Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University predicts that Christians, who make up two-thirds of Americans, may have an outsized influence in next month’s election. Of voters who frequently attend religious services, 59 percent of them cast their ballot for Trump in 2020, according to Pew Research Center.
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During the event, Trump said his presidential run was the result of “God leading me to where I am today,” and he emphasized that “Americans of faith are not a threat to our country. Americans of faith are the soul of our country.”
As the election nears its final days, both Trump and his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, have increased their campaign stops targeted at religious voters — with Trump’s campaign even painting the election as "spiritual warfare."
Harris attended church services and spoke at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church near Atlanta a week ago. Trump criticized Harris as “very disrespectful to our Catholic community,” for not attending the Al Smith dinner in New York City, a high-profile fundraiser for Catholic charities, last week, NBC reported.
Trump has enlisted the support of pastors across the country—as many as 10,000, according to Lahmeyer—naming some to roles such as spiritual advisers and others to his various coalitions, boards and groups.
Raw Story compiled a list of Trump-affiliated faith leaders who’ve advised or supported his campaign over the years — some showing varying levels of public support, others stepping away.
White is a televangelist and former senior pastor of City of Destiny church in Apopka, Fla., a historically Black congregation that transitioned to a mostly elderly white congregation under her leadership.
White has been a spiritual adviser to Trump for years. She delivered an invocation for Trump’s 2017 inauguration and advised his administration’s Faith and Opportunity initiative. White delivered prayers on Jan. 6, 2021 at a “Save America” rally in Washington, D.C., and she led his national faith advisory board starting in September 2021.
“As a friend, pastor, and faith adviser to President Trump for over 20 years, I've been able to witness President Trump's deep commitment to faith. And never more than after surviving the violent attack on his very life on July 13th,” White said in a press release in July announcing the campaign’s “Believers for Trump” coalition. “As president, he championed people of faith of every denomination and defended our religious freedoms with the belief that we worship God, not government."
White has appeared less in the public eye this election cycle, especially since Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee following President Joe Biden stepping away in July, Religion News Service reported in September.
Yet, Trump shouted her out at last Monday’s event, looking for her in the audience but said she was likely in the back “making phone calls, getting more people lined up for the vote.”
White also spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference in June, sharing that Trump asked her about what God thought of his presidential candidacy.
“I said, ‘Sir … you’re going to be president one day,’” White allegedly said, but added, “I hate the price that you’re going to pay.
A former U.S. representative, Walker, was facing a Republican primary runoff election in March against Trump-backed Addison McDowell in a race to represent North Carolina's 6th District.
Then Trump offered Walker a job directing the campaign’s outreach to faith groups and minority communities, prompting him to drop out of the race.
Walker, a former Baptist pastor, has made barely any public appearances since taking the job in March. He did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.
Lahmeyer, the founder of Pastors for Trump, said the group was supporting the campaign with last Monday’s event by inviting pastors to attend. While not officially affiliated with the Trump campaign, the group does outreach to pastors in all 50 states.
“Every pastor, whether they pastor a church of 70 people, 700 people or 7,000 people, they have influence,”Lahmayer told Raw Story. “If a pastor tells their congregation you should vote, odds are those members are going to listen to their pastor. That's the simple strategy, but it's very effective.”
Lahmeyer is the pastor of Sheridan Church in Tulsa, Okla, and lost his Republican Senate primary race to now-Sen. James Lankford (R-OK). He has participated in the ReAwaken America tour, founded by entrepreneur Clay Clark and former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, which has been known to push conspiracy theories, misinformation and election denialism.
Lahmeyer has been a vocal advocate of Christian nationalism, and his social media posts have supported conspiracy theorists and demonized Democrats, according to Rolling Stone.
“I will embrace Christian Nationalism because… we are at war in this country; it is a spiritual war between good and evil,” Laymeyer told Rolling Stone.
His posts have ranged from “Alex Jones did nothing wrong” to “Speaker Pelosi is a DEMON.”
Laymeyer also called members of the LGBTQ+ community demonic in June, LGBTQ Nation reported.
“The LGBTQXYZ+3 movement is a demonic-inspired movement. It’s totally demonic," Lahmeyere said.
Lahmeyer spoke out in July after the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pa.
"What is our response?" Laymeyer told Fox 23 in Tulsa. "This is key. What's our response? Do we lash back? Try to get vengeance?"
Graham, the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, spoke at last Monday’s event, leading the group in praying for Trump to win the election.
Graham said “dark forces” were at work against Trump and “encouraged President Trump that when he wakes up in the morning, that the first thing he does is to ask God for help, and if he does, God will hear and God will answer his prayer.”
Graham, president and CEO of Christian humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse, spoke with Axios in 2018 about why he supported Trump , despite the former president's alleged sexual misconduct and extramarital affairs.
"Trump has admitted his faults and has apologized to his wife and his daughter for things he has done and said. And he has to stand before God for those things,” Graham said.
Graham has recently taken issue with an ad from Evangelicals for Harris that used a clip of his late father, Newsweek reported.
“They are trying to mislead people. Maybe they don't know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President @realDonaldTrump in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father's views and opinions would not have changed." Graham died in 2018 at the age of 99,” Graham posted.
Morris, founding pastor of Texas megachurch Gateway Church, stepped down from the church in June after admitting to The Christian Post that he repeatedly sexually abused a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s.
Morris was a member of Trump’s evangelical advisory board for the 2016 election.
“When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying. It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years,” Morris said in a statement to The Christian Post.
Morris continued, “In March of 1987, this situation was brought to light, and it was confessed and repented of. I submitted myself to the Elders of Shady Grove Church and the young lady’s father. They asked me to step out of ministry and receive counseling and freedom ministry, which I did. Since that time, I have walked in purity and accountability in this area.”
Morris’ accuser Cindy Clemishire, told The Christian Post she was “appalled” that Morris said she was a “young lady” when he abused her.
“I was 12 years old. I was a little girl. A very innocent little girl. And he was brought into our home. He and his wife, Debbie, and their little boy, Josh, and trusted and preached at the church that my dad helped start and then began grooming all of us to do this, which took me decades to wrap my brain around as an adult,” Clemishire said.
Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to Raw Story's request for comment.
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