Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will speak at this week’s annual gathering of the National Baptist Convention USA.
Hillary Clinton
The group billing itself as the nation’s oldest and largest African-American religious organization announced Sept. 4 that the former first lady, U.S. senator and Secretary of State “will be allowed to address the delegates in attendance” for the 136th annual session being held in the Kansas City Convention Center.
Her speech is scheduled at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8. Convention officials invited credentialed media to attend in person, but a number of the sessions are being streamed live on the Internet.
Clinton, a lifelong Methodist, is trying to reach out to religious voters in a campaign where some conservative evangelical leaders traditionally loyal to the Republican Party have reservations about this year’s nominee. While Donald Trump has won over previous skeptics such as Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Hispanic Baptist pastor Ramiro Peña, others, like Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, suggest that values voters satisfied with neither candidate should register dissent by casting a ballot for a third party or write-in candidate.
The debate has some pundits suggesting this election cycle provides Democrats a rare opportunity to close the “God gap,” a trend of regular church goers favoring Republicans in national elections dating back to the early 1980s.