Franklin Graham urges Minnesota Christians to run locally
More than 2,000 people packed the state Capitol lawn Thursday to hear the Rev. Franklin Graham encourage evangelical Christians to "put God back into the political picture of the United States of America."
Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham, urged the crowd to vote and run for local offices, especially school boards. It's a message he plans to deliver at rallies at all 50 state capitals.
Graham, whose father's ministry was based for decades in the Twin Cities, said he would not endorse any candidates this political season and had no faith in either major party.
Instead, he called on the crowd to focus on voting for those who'll give a voice to Christian concerns.
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"You go to the polls to vote and in some cases you might have to hold your nose," he said. "But you want to vote for candidates, even if it's not clear, for the candidate that you think who will at least listen to what the Christians have to say."
Exit polls in 2012 showed about 80 percent of evangelicals voted for Mitt Romney for president. Whether they will support Donald Trump is not clear, said to Dan Hofrenning, a political science professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.
Trump's divorces and controversial stances might push some away, but evangelicals backed Ronald Reagan, an actor who'd been divorced in 1980, Hofrenning said, noting Trump has been making a play toward the evangelical bloc of the Republican party.
"I think evangelicals do have some pragmatism," he said. "Donald Trump is promising to appoint pro-life judges and I think that will be enough to motivate a lot of evangelicals."
Trump isn't exactly the candidate most churchgoing evangelicals want in office, he added.
"I think it might be muted a bit and I think Trump is just not enough of a fellow traveler among evangelicals," Hofrenning said. "He'll probably win some evangelicals but I think the big question will be turnout."
That turnout would likely come from people like Lloyd Johnson, who came to Thursday's rally with his wife on one of three buses commissioned by their church.
Johnson said he was pleased that Graham didn't come out and say who to vote for. Trump, he acknowledged, will probably earn his vote, although he wasn't exactly enthusiastic.
"I think the Republican candidates at least talk about religious things," Johnson said. "The Democratic candidates don't even want to talk about it."
Michele Seehafer of Medina has broader reservations about the national race, which is why she liked Graham's appeal to Christians to seek offices within Minnesota.
"I'm just really interested in this year's election," she said. "I really like the message about just getting involved on your local level."