Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ad urges Catholics to back Donald Trump

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 26, 2024 / 07:00 am

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is urging Catholic voters to support former president Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential ticket in a new campaign advertisement launched this week.

“Catholics may disagree on many issues, but we must find a way to love our children more than we hate each other,” Kennedy says in the advertisement sponsored by CatholicVote. 

“I hope you’ll join me in supporting Donald Trump,” says the former independent candidate for president who suspended his independent presidential campaign in August and endorsed Trump.

Kennedy — the son of the late Democratic Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of the late Democratic President John F. Kennedy — has campaigned with Trump over the last two months and serves on the transition team, which would help staff the administration if the former president wins.

“My Catholicism provided the foundation for a lifetime of striving to perfect my personal relationship with God,” Kennedy says in the advertisement. “Two features of Catholicism are the notions of original sin and the concept of a forgiving God. Our job is to try to perfect ourselves through conscious contact with our Creator, knowing that in human form we’re never going to achieve perfection.”

“The same’s true for America,” Kennedy continues. “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.”

In the advertisement, Kennedy says Trump will “take bold action on the economy, on our border, and on restoring children’s health” and accused the Democratic Party of becoming “the party of war, censorship, and corruption.”

The advertisement coincides with the Trump campaign’s recent push to rally Catholic support for his candidacy.

In recent weeks, Trump has been critical of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, for skipping the annual Al Smith charity dinner, which is hosted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York and traditionally attended by both major party candidates in election years. 

Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have both spoken about the Catholic vote at rallies and accused Harris of prejudice against Catholics. They cited her record on religious liberty and her scrutiny of judicial nominees for being members of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization.

Vance, a convert to the Catholic faith, also published an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which reignited some of the same concerns about Harris’ record.

Brian Burch, the president of CatholicVote, said in a statement that Kennedy “understands exactly what’s at stake.” CatholicVote is a nonprofit political advocacy group that has endorsed Trump’s candidacy.

“[Kennedy has] paid a heavy personal price for pointing out the truth: The Harris-Walz ticket is the most anti-American ticket in history,” Burch added.

Harris has also leaned into her religious faith in the final weeks of the election with speeches at Baptist churches that have predominantly Black congregations. She also said in a CNN town hall that she prays every day, and sometimes twice per day.

Some recent polls show that Catholic voters are nearly evenly divided on the 2024 presidential election. According to a September Pew Research Center survey, about 52% of Catholics support Trump, and 47% support Harris. A poll conducted by the National Catholic Reporter found that Catholics in the seven most tightly contested swing states preferred Trump 50% to Harris’ 45%.