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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the black sheep of America’s most well-known Catholic household, is urging the devoted to assist former President Trump in a new TV ad.
Kennedy, who first challenged President Biden for the Democrat nomination after which ran as an unbiased, discusses his religion in the $250,000 ad spot earlier than giving the explanation why he now helps Trump for the presidency.
“President Trump has promised to take bold action on our economy, on the border and on restoring children’s health. The Democratic Party has become the party of war, censorship and corruption,” RFK Jr. says.
“Catholics may disagree on many issues, but we must find a way to love our children more than we hate each other. I hope you’ll join me in supporting Donald Trump.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former President Trump shake arms throughout a marketing campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena on August 23, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
The ad, launched by the conservative group CatholicVote, is ready to air in Pennsylvania earlier than a wider launch in swing states, Semafor reported. It comes lower than two weeks earlier than a traditionally tight election in which Catholic voters might very effectively decide who subsequent occupies the White House.
CatholicVote President Brian Burch has criticized Harris’ place on abortion, noting the observe violates Catholic social educating. In a current interview with NBC News, the vice chairman stated she doesn’t assist any concessions on the abortion problem, together with spiritual exemptions for faith-based well being care suppliers who’ve a conscientious objection to the process.
“I think Kamala Harris is making a massive gamble. She’s calculating that she can build a winning coalition without people of faith,” Burch instructed Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday. He acknowledged that Trump has additionally “disappointed” some pro-life voters by opposing a federal ban on abortion however stated, “I think Trump’s comments are reflecting where the public is and that there is no consensus abortion.”
According to Semafor, the collaboration with Kennedy got here after months of conversations with CatholicVote speaking by means of their positions on abortion. Burch instructed the outlet that Kennedy finally agreed “we need to be spending an equal amount of money on helping women choose to keep their child as we are on helping them to get abortions.”
DEMOCRATS DRIVING RELIGIOUS VOTE AWAY FROM PARTY AS TRUMP COURTS CATHOLICS: ‘ANTI-CHRISTIAN’ PARTY
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
The pro-Trump ad comes because the Trump marketing campaign is actively courting Catholic voters. Trump’s working mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, a Catholic convert, penned an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Thursday that accused Harris of harboring “prejudice against Catholics.”
“Last week, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, one of Vice President Kamala Harris’s top surrogates, mocked the sacrament of the Eucharist in a cringey skit with a podcaster. Last Thursday, Ms. Harris became the first presidential candidate since 1984 to skip the annual Al Smith dinner, a fundraising event that benefits Catholic Charities,” Vance wrote.
“The first insults Catholics, while the latter displays a more subtle disregard for an important Catholic cultural event, one that raises money for social services that aid people in need, including people with disabilities and refugees and immigrants. Both show the Harris campaign’s anti-Catholic bigotry.”
A handful of key battleground states this election cycle have big Catholic populations. About 24% of the Pennsylvania inhabitants, which has been touted because the state that can possible decide the general consequence of the election, identifies as Catholic; about 25% of the inhabitants in Nevada identifies as Catholic; 18% in Michigan; 21% in Arizona; and 25% in Wisconsin. Other notable battleground states have a smaller Catholic inhabitants, together with Georgia and North Carolina, each of which have a roughly 9% inhabitants of Catholics.
TRUMP APPLAUDS CATHOLIC GROUP’S MULTI-MILLION ANTI-HARRIS CAMPAIGN APPEALING TO CHURCH FAITHFUL
Vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, wrote an op-ed accusing Vice President Harris of “prejudice” towards Christians. (New York Times screenshot)
Catholics traditionally voted for Democrats till the Nineteen Sixties and early Nineteen Seventies, when crime and cultural points got here to the fore alongside financial considerations, most notably in 1972 when President Richard Nixon’s marketing campaign slammed Democrat opponent Sen. George McGovern as a candidate who supported “amnesty, abortion and acid.”
Today, Catholic voters are evenly break up between the 2 events, and whichever aspect captures the bulk is often the aspect that wins the White House.
President Biden, the second Catholic president in the nation’s historical past (after John F. Kennedy), received the Catholic vote over Trump in 2020 by about 5 proportion factors. In 2016, Trump received the voting bloc at 52% assist in contrast to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 44% Catholic assist. Former President Obama received the Catholic vote in each 2008 and 2012, as did former President George W. Bush in his 2004 election towards John Kerry, Pew Research knowledge reveals.
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The exception to the rule got here in 2000, when former Vice President Al Gore received the Catholic vote by two factors over Bush regardless of dropping the presidential election total.
The Harris marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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