‘When you look at the numbers, we win’: the prophetic Texas pastor poised to take Jasmine Crockett’s House seat

Frederick Douglass Haynes III, a 65-year-old Black Baptist minister from Dallas, is expected to win Jasmine Crockett's seat in Texas's 30th congressional district in the November midterms, after a decisive primary win. Crockett gave up the seat for an unsuccessful Senate bid. Haynes belongs to a growing group of left-leaning religious candidates who want to take faith-based politics back from white evangelicals aligned with Donald Trump, according to The Guardian.

Haynes led Friendship-West Baptist Church for four decades, building it from 83 members into a congregation of more than 13,000. He long insisted on pressing for change from outside government, likening himself to a tree shaker rather than a jelly maker, as Jesse Jackson put it. Young activists pressed him to run, and in December they argued he had never actually prayed over the decision. After speaking with Senator Raphael Warnock and praying, he entered the race. His platform includes abolishing ICE, universal healthcare and a living wage. At a Fort Worth fundraiser, he called Trump "President Pickpocket" and urged Democrats to offer a vision of national rebuilding.

His grandfather and father were also pastors in San Francisco.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Guardian’s reporting. Read the full story at The Guardian →