Why I’m Voting for Kamala Harris as an Evangelical Christian in 2024
I recognize that writing this will likely cost me. I don’t intend to convince anyone to make the same decisions. But this is why I’m choosing to vote as I have done.
I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020 either. (I wrote in candidates both times.) I saw the distorting effect he was having in Evangelicalism and reasoned that a Trump victory would be bad for the church in America. I think the intervening years have proven me right on that. I have watched evangelicals that I respected sell out to Trump. I have watched others who refused to bow the knee get attacked. For that reason alone, voting for Trump is not an option for me.
The standard comeback to the above is “what about abortion?” There are multiple answers to that:
Trump isn’t pro-life anymore (or rather, he stopped pretending he ever was), so both candidates are pro-abortion.
Dobbs pushed abortion decisions to the states, so does the presidential stance on abortion really matter? There’s no way a bill changing the status quo would make it to the president’s desk. I just don’t see how the president’s views can move the needle on this.
The Bible doesn’t talk a lot about abortion - not directly at least. But it talks an awful lot about how we are to treat immigrants. The anti-immigrant stance of the GOP nauseates me. (No, I’m not for open borders. I’m for treating immigrants as human beings make in the image of God.)
Other than border policy, the one area that the president can act without Congress (I’m setting aside executive orders here, which is an issue) is in foreign policy. And Trump’s foreign policy is bonkers. He loves to cozy up to strongmen and dictators. (Note that in his recent debate, Trump thought the fact that Hungarian autocrat Victor Orban likes him to be a plus, not a minus!). We need someone who will support Ukraine, not “stop the war on day 1” (giving Putin huge territorial gains). We need someone who will stand up to Putin, not cozy up to him. And we need some who will support Israel, yet hold them accountable for how they prosecute the war against Hamas. Harris has the right positions - Trump does not.
January 6, and the attempted coup that Trump engineered (or at the very least, encouraged) should have consequences. Like for example, never getting close to political power ever again. In a sane world, Trump would already be serving a lengthy prison sentence for J6 alone.
But of course, J6 is not his only crime. He’s been found civilly liable for sexual assault, spread lies about the election being stolen, mishandled (and stolen) classified documents (and would be standing trial if Aileen Cannon hadn’t been utterly in the tank for Trump, but that will be rectified on appeal, I think). He has no respect for the rule of law. If he is reelected, he will make all his legal trouble disappear. Justice demands that that not happen.
If Trump loses, maybe (please God!) the Republican Party returns to sanity and something akin to principled conservatism. A big defeat in November might be enough to push the reset button. As a conservative without a party, I hope so.
What is a vote? It is not an endorsement of every policy espoused by a candidate. It is a moment-in-time choice, saying “I think candidate A would, on the whole, be better for the country than candidate B.” That’s all it is. With my vote, I am not endorsing all of Harris’s policy preferences (most of which she can’t get done without Congress anyway), many of which I disagree with.
Corollary to the above point: It is not inherently sinful to vote for a Democrat. (John MacArthur and others who say this are operating from a misconception of a vote is.)
Many of the criticisms of Kamala Harris (she’s an empty suit, she doesn’t understand politics or policy, etc.) reek of misogyny. I expect it of Trump. I expect better from fellow Christians. Criticize her policies all day long - I’ll be right there beside you. But casting aspersions because she’s a woman (or speaking in a way you wouldn’t speak of a man) is out of bounds.
Donald Trump is no spring chicken. His speeches of late show disturbing signs of mental slippage. Joe Biden was forced out of the race due to degraded mental ability, and rightly so. Is Trump in the same situation, but with a party that doesn’t have the power to tell him to take a seat?
Why not another write in? I’ve debated this a lot. I live in a solidly blue state (Washington), so my vote won’t count in terms of the Electoral College. But Trump needs to lose badly enough to be banished from politics forever. Running up the popular vote is a way to do that.
Do I know what time it is? This is a question being thrown around on the right a lot in recent days. But their focus is misplaced. I remember talking to a fellow Christian when Bill Clinton was elected - he thought that was the end of the republic. But it wasn’t. Clinton couldn’t destroy the country in eight years. Barack Obama had eight years to do it, and he didn’t. Nor did Joe Biden in four. Kamala Harris won’t destroy this country. But Trump might, if he attempts to hold onto the reins of power as he did on January 6. He doesn’t love America or the constitution - he loves himself and his personal power. We would do well to, as those on the right are fond of saying, “defy tyrants.” That’s what time it is - time to defy the would-be tyrant, Donald Trump.
That’s why I’m voting for Harris.
Well reasoned and persuasive, John. I hope some of those on the left, who demand "purity" on this or that issue -- Cease fire now, or I don't vote! or, Medicare-for-all or I don't vote! -- come across this post.