Senator JD Vance (R-OH) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are working to reach Catholic voters in Pennsylvania during the final days prior to Election Day, with Kennedy starring in a new advertisement released by a Catholic political action committee and Vance offering an opinion column detailing the complicated history between Vice President Kamala Harris and Catholics.
In the ad released Thursday by CatholicVote, a nonprofit political advocacy group, Kennedy said former President Donald Trump represents an opportunity to address the country’s shortcoming “through unified action,” which he said represents Catholic thought.
“Two features in Catholicism are the notions of original sin and the concept of a forgiving God. Our job is to strive to perfect ourselves through conscious contact with our Creator, knowing that in human form, we’re never going to achieve perfection,” said Kennedy. “We’ll always slip, but each time we get to get up and strive again.”
The former presidential candidate, who originally ran as a Democrat but later suspended his independent candidacy to endorse Trump, said America is afforded a similar opportunity.
Kennedy explained, “The same is true for America, even when we don’t live up to our national ideals, we get to remedy our shortfalls through unified action. That hope has led me to support Donald Trump.”
The former presidential candidate described Democrats as, “the party of war, censorship, and corruption,” and urged, “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.”
It was reported by Semafor that CathilicVote will spend $250,000 running the ad.
Kennedy’s ad was released the same day The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a column by Trump’s running mate, which described the Biden-Harris administration as hostile toward Catholics, and Harris as personally bigoted against adherents of the universal church.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism as an adult, began with two examples of alleged insults toward Catholics, arguing Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan “mocked the sacrament of the Eucharist in a cringey skit with a podcaster.”
In a video posted to social media, Whitmer placed a Doritos chip into the mouth of the podcaster while wearing a Harris-Walz campaign hat. Harris has claimed Doritos are her favorite snack.
Let’s be clear what’s happening in this video.
Gov. Whitmer of Michigan is pretending to give communion to an leftist podcaster on her knees, using a Dorito as the Eucharist while wearing a Harris-Walz hat.
Do they want ZERO Catholic votes for Harris?pic.twitter.com/daUTNX9vNn
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) October 10, 2024
Days after the video was posted, Vance noted, “Harris became the first presidential candidate since 1984 to skip the annual Al Smith dinner, a fundraising event that benefits Catholic Charities.”
Vance said the first example “insults Catholics,” while the second “displays a more subtle disregard for an important Catholic cultural event,” which raises money for Catholic Charities.
The senator ultimately condemned both examples, writing they reveal “the Harris campaign’s anti-Catholic bigotry.”
He then listed a series of statements and actions by Harris, throughout her political career, that he said exposed her bias against Catholics.
In 2018, Vance noted she used her role in the U.S. Senate to question U.S. District Judge Brian Buescher about his Catholic faith during a confirmation hearing, even questioning Buescher’s involvement with the Knights of Columbus, and suggesting his Catholic faith made him unable to administer justice fairly.
Further back, Vance noted Harris voiced her opposition to the Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court decision, which Vance wrote meant Harris effectively argued that Catholics and other believers must “perform services that violate their sincerely held religious views, or indeed anyone’s conscientious belief she disagrees with.”
Vance made similar arguments about Harris’ past support for the Equality Act and introduction of the Do No Harm Act, which would have required Catholic priests perform weddings for same sex couples, and forced Catholic hospitals to perform abortions and transgender surgeries.
The vice presidential candidate added that Harris’ behavior toward Catholics did not change after she was elected in 2020, describing the Biden-Harris administration as “[a]nti-Catholic.”
“Last year, multiple FBI field offices were tied to a coordinated effort to target traditional Catholics as potential ‘racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists,” wrote Vance for The Post-Gazette. “Despite this apparently clear-cut instance of anti-Catholic prejudice, a Biden-Harris Department of Justice declared there was ‘no malicious intent’ behind the memo.”
Data gathered by the Pew Research Center suggests Catholics could play a significant role in Pennsylvania on Election Day, as about 24 percent of Pennsylvanians identified themselves as Catholic to the pollsters in September.
President Joe Biden was the second Catholic president in the United States’ history, while President John F. Kennedy was the first.
Watch the full ad featuring Kennedy:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” by CatholicVote.Â
