Inside Chicago’s McCormick Place center during the Democratic National Convention last month, one sign stood out: “Evangélicos Con Harris.”
The group is part of a national effort to rally evangelical voters around Vice President Kamala Harris and signals the Democrats’ intent to try to peel off Latino evangelicals — a growing and highly coveted voting bloc — from former President Donald Trump’s base.
“That’s the community we need to be reaching out to,” Patricia Ruiz-Cantu, an organizer for Evangélicos Con Harris and a Milwaukee community leader, told NBC News.
Latinos are the fastest-growing group of American evangelicals, with 15% of Latinos identifying as evangelical Protestants.
Although Latino evangelicals had traditionally narrowly sided with Democratic presidential candidates, including expressing more support for President Barack Obama than Republican Mitt Romney in 2012, a majority of Latino evangelicals backed Trump in 2016 and 2020.
According to the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, the influential president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the Latino evangelical community “is the most independent voting constituency in America — we can’t be married to either party, we have to be married to the agenda of the lamb,” he said, referring to Christ. “The donkey and the elephant can never control us or define us.”
Rodriguez has advised President George W. Bush, Obama and Trump and has witnessed firsthand the political growth and evolution of Latino evangelicals.
A glimpse into Rodriguez’s New Season megachurch in Sacramento, California, underscores the power that pastors like him can hold in this election cycle.
Claudia Martinez, who is originally from the Mexican border town of Tijuana, has attended New Season for over a decade. There, she’s found community, purpose and even love. Ten years ago, she met her now-husband, Edickson Martinez, who’s Dominican, through the church. Both are part of a growing group of Latino evangelicals who find themselves attending every week largely because of Rodriguez, a charismatic leader who is well on his way to becoming one of the most influential figures in American politics today.
During a recent Sunday morning service, Rodriguez, originally from Puerto Rico, was dressed casually and proselytized in English and Spanish. He joked, sang and preached with the churchgoers — mainly first- and second-generation immigrants, and his audience appeared captivated, with several moved to tears as he spoke.
Although Rodriguez doesn’t tell his followers whom to vote for, it’s clear that his underlying message sticks with them. Edickson Martinez said Rodriguez has always told them to vote their conscience “regardless of the candidate.”
But Rodriguez doesn’t shy away from expressing his current disappointment with the Democratic Party, a party he idolized under Obama’s leadership. In his eyes, Democrats have gone “too far left,” particularly when it comes to issues of immigration, transgender rights and abortion.
Rodriguez predicts that over 70% of Latino evangelicals will end up voting for Trump. He believes they’re willing to see past Trump’s moral character, his legal woes and his anti-immigrant rhetoric, instead viewing him as a vehicle in which Judeo-Christian values can be advanced. “It’s socialism. Communism,” Rodriguez said, referring to the Democratic Party’s platform, an inaccurate attack line that is often used by the GOP to demonize Democrats.
But Ruiz-Cantu, from Evangélicos Con Harris, said it’s the Democratic Party and the Harris campaign that best represents evangelical Christian values.
“In my view, evangelical Christianity should embody the core teachings of Jesus Christ, emphasizing love, compassion, acceptance and justice,” Ruiz-Cantu said.
“I believe Kamala Harris resonates more with the Latino evangelical community than Donald Trump because of her strong advocacy for social justice, equity and inclusive immigration reform,” she said. “Her support for pathways to citizenship and her understanding of the complexities facing immigrant families particularly align with the values of many Latino evangelicals. I appreciate her commitment to addressing systemic inequities in education, health care and economic opportunities.”
At the New Season megachurch, Claudia Martinez said that even though she has not made up her mind between Democrats or Republicans, her choice in this presidential election will come down to the candidate who can best ensure “there is justice for immigrants and Latinos.”
Perhaps 10 years ago that sentiment would have translated into a direct vote for Democrats, but not today.
“Christ above anything else,” Claudia Martinez quickly added after she listed her top voting issues.
Edickson Martinez, who has not always identified as a Republican, is clear-eyed about his decision to vote for Trump. “I think that the candidate that is closest to the values that we support as Christians would be Trump,” he said.
He went as far as predicting that a majority of Rodriguez’s followers are hesitant to openly say they will be voting for Trump this November. “They are scared of being rejected,” he said.
What is evident is that Rodriguez’s words matter. Today, his sphere of influence is as big as it has ever been. Claudia and Edickson Martinez don’t just attend his Sunday services — they also follow Rodriguez on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and, as of recently, on Daystar Television, a popular national Christian television network launched in 1997 by televangelists Joni and Marcus Lamb. Over the years, Daystar has predominantly reached a white evangelical audience, but as of November 2022, the network created a Spanish spinoff to reach Latinos.
The move to position itself to a Spanish-speaking audience reflects the desire to adjust to a rapidly changing evangelical demographic. Today, Rodriguez is one of Daystar’s biggest stars, reaching millions more households across the U.S. and Central and South America.
“The Latino is the future of American Christianity,” Rodriguez stressed.
What remains to be seen is whether this crucial voting bloc will move back toward Democrats or become part of a more enduring Republican base.