PHOENIX (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is stepping up her efforts to win over voters who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, enlisting prominent members of the faith to make the case in pivotal Arizona that Donald Trump does not align with the church's values.
Her state campaign announced on Thursday an advisory committee to formalize the outreach to current and former members of the church, widely known as the Mormon church.
With nearly 450,000 church members in Arizona, about 6% of the state's population, Latter-day Saints and former church members could prove critical in what will likely be an extremely close race.
Latter-day Saints have traditionally voted Republican and are likely to remain part of the GOP coalition. Clustered in solidly Republican states, they have long been a major force in GOP primaries and local politics across the West, but they have not held much sway in national elections. In 2020, about 7 in 10 Mormon voters nationally supported Trump, according to AP VoteCast, while about one-quarter backed Democrat Joe Biden.
Core to Harris’ strategy is preventing Trump from running up big margins with demographic groups that favor him. While she is unlikely to win anything close to a majority of Latter-day Saints, picking up a small share of their votes would make a big difference in a state with a recent history of tight elections. Biden won by just under 10,500 votes in 2020. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes won by just 280 in 2022.
Latter-day Saints supporting Harris in Arizona make a faith-based appeal for backing the Democratic ticket despite any reservations, pointing to church teaching that the U.S. Constitution is divinely inspired.
“The Constitution is a tenet of our faith, and we certainly shouldn't be voting for people who have shown a disdain for it,” said Joel John, a former Republican state lawmaker who will serve as a co-chair of the committee. “And we certainly shouldn't be supporting someone who tried to overthrow it on Jan. 6.”
The Salt Lake City-based church does not endorse candidates or political parties, but John said Latter-day Saints are encouraged to elect politicians who are “good, honest and wise." He said those are moral traits that Trump lacks and that transcend any policy differences they might have with Harris, such as her economic plans or position on gun rights.
Halee Dobbins, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said Democrats have “allowed progressive policies to erode traditional values."
“President Trump has consistently stood with believers by protecting religious institutions, appointing constitutionalist Justices, and defending Christian values nationally and abroad,” Dobbins said in a statement. “He has made it a priority to protect religious communities, not fight against them.”
While many conservative-leaning religious voters warmed to him long ago, Trump has struggled to win over Latter-day Saints. For many members of the church, Trump's penchant for foul language and demeaning rhetoric toward women and people of color clashes with the church's values of humility, morality and compassion.
It has not helped that Trump has feuded with U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, among the best known members of the church, and former U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
In Arizona, Latter-day Saints make up an outsize share of the population in metro Phoenix's East Valley, a suburban area where ticket-splitting voters have rejected Trump-backed Republicans, helping to push a reliable GOP state into a battleground. Mesa, Arizona's third-largest city with more than 500,000 people, traces its modern history to a settlement founded by pioneers from the faith in the 1800s.
Church members also settled in swaths of rural Arizona and their descendants remain deeply rooted there.
Democratic efforts to woo Latter-day Saints are not new. Hillary Clinton in 2016 drew parallels between Trump's pledge to stop Muslim immigration and the history of religious persecution against Latter-day Saints. Biden went further four years later, investing in organizing church members as Harris is trying to do now.
The “social expectation" for members of the faith to align with conservatives is strong, but Harris has an opening in particular to win over younger Latter-day Saints, who, like the country at large, are more diverse, said Brittany Romanello, an anthropologist and post-doctoral fellow at Arizona State University. Her research includes culture and identity of Latter-day Saints.
“Mormons have been shown to have this attitude that they aren’t just voting based on party affiliation only,” said Romanello, who was raised in the church but is no longer practicing. “They’re voting based on morals.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
QABATIYA, West Bank (AP) — Israeli soldiers pushed three apparently lifeless bodies from rooftops during a raid in the northern part of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene and video obtained by AP.
An AP journalist in the town of Qabatiya witnessed three soldiers push the bodies off the roofs of adjacent multi-story buildings, sending them falling out of view. It was the latest in a series of suspected violations by Israeli forces since the start of the Israel-Hamas war that rights groups say show a pattern of excessive force toward Palestinians.
“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values and the expectations from IDF soldiers," the military said in a statement, using the acronym it goes by. "The incident is under review.”
Israel said its troops had killed four militants during operations in Qabatiya on Thursday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah did not immediately confirm multiple deaths, but said one person had been killed in the town and that Israeli gunfire sent 10 Palestinians to the hospital.
In the video obtained by AP, three soldiers can be seen picking up what appears to be a stiff body and then dragging it toward the edge of the roof as troops stand on the ground below. The soldiers on the roof peer over the edge before heaving the body off.
On an adjacent rooftop, the soldiers hold another apparently lifeless body by its limbs and swing it over the edge. In a third instance, a soldier kicks a body toward the edge before it falls from view. Photos captured by AP during Thursday’s raid show an Israeli army bulldozer moving near the buildings where the bodies were dropped.
Other journalists at the scene also witnessed the bodies being pushed off the roofs.
The identities of the dead and the cause of their deaths were not immediately known.
When withdrawing from raids, the army usually leaves behind any Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire. Occasionally the army brings dead bodies into Israel.
Under international law, soldiers are supposed to ensure dead bodies, including those of enemy combatants, are treated decently.
“There is no military need to do this. It’s just a savage way of treating Palestinian bodies,” said Shawan Jabarin, the director of Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, after watching the footage.
Jabarin said the video was shocking but not surprising, and he was doubtful Israel would properly investigate the incident. The Israeli military rarely prosecutes soldiers in cases of reported harm to Palestinians, rights groups say.
“The most that will happen is that soldiers will be disciplined, but there will be no real investigation and no real prosecution," said Jabarin.
The AP reporter who witnessed the raid saw a blindfolded and shirtless Palestinian man kneeling before an Israeli army jeep and armed soldiers. Smoke billows from several buildings that appeared damaged.
As the world’s attention focuses on the far more deadly war in Gaza less than 80 miles away, scores of Palestinians have been killed, shot and arrested in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has waged a months-long crackdown.
Over 700 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since the war erupted on Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The northern West Bank has seen some of the worst violence since the war’s outbreak.
Israel says the raids are necessary to stamp out militancy, which has flared since Oct. 7. In that time, Palestinian gunmen have attacked Israelis at checkpoints and staged several attacks within Israel.
Earlier this month, Israel staged its deadliest raid into the northern West Bank since the war began, killing at least 33 people.
Frankel reported from Jerusalem. AP reporter Jack Jeffery contributed reporting from Ramallah, West Bank.
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Israeli soldiers look over a rooftop where two lie motionless in the West Bank town of Qatabiya during a raid, Thursday, Sept.19, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Israeli soldiers look over a rooftop where two bodies lie motionless in the West Bank town of Qatabiya during a raid, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - An explosion is seen as three bodies lie motionless on rooftops in the West Bank town of in the West Bank town of Qatabiya during a raid, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Israeli soldiers stand near three bodies on rooftops in the West Bank town of Qatabiya during a raid, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Three bodies lie motionless on rooftops in the West Bank town of Qatabiya during a Israeli raid, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - An explosion is seen as three bodies lie motionless on rooftops in the West Bank town of Qatabiya during a raid, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
