Billy Graham’s Granddaughter Endorses Kamala Harris

The granddaughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham said she’s backing Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race against Donald Trump.
Jerushah Duford, whose mother, Virginia Graham Tchividjian, is Graham’s eldest daughter, announced her support for the Democrat in a video call to an “Evangelicals for Harris” group on Wednesday. She suggested that Christians who continue to support Trump are putting people off from following the teachings of Jesus.
“I was thinking this morning that if you told me 10 years ago that I would be taking an active role in politics, I’d have laughed,” Duford said in her recorded video. “But then I had to stop and realize this is so much more than politics.
“In 2016, when a man bragged about assaulting women, various leaders of my faith then propped up this man as a poster boy for godly manhood and leadership. This broke my heart as I have watched — quite frankly, for the last eight years — people who were curious about Jesus and his teachings [have] done a 180 and walked in the other direction from my faith.”
In 2016, evangelical support for Trump and running mate Mike Pence was crucial for their election victory.
Trump continues to be considered a figurehead among religious factions of his MAGA base, including Christian nationalists.
The Evangelicals for Harris group, formerly known as Evangelicals for Biden, is now trying to win over the demographic to help her win the 2024 election.
In April, a Pew Research poll showed that 81 percent of white evangelicals would support Trump in November’s election.
The Evangelicals for Harris group held a Zoom call on Wednesday to show their support for the vice president’s White House bid. The event was titled “A Zoom Call for All Christians and People of Good Will.”
In her video message, Duford made reference to Bible verse Isaiah 1:30, in which Isaiah attacks Israelites in Jerusalem and Judah for their unfaithfulness and disobedience to God, describing them as like an “oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water,” the Christian Post reported.
“First, people professing the Lord made excuses for [Trump’s] lack of kindness, then for the name-calling. Soon it was making excuses for assault. Then it became making excuses for January 6, and now making excuses for convicted assault and 34 felonies,” Duford said. “The oak leaves don’t wither overnight. And I’m terrified to think of how far this turning our head the other way and making excuses will take our country—but more importantly, our witness to the world.”
This is not the first time Duford has urged Christians and church leaders to disavow Trump.
In a 2020 opinion piece for USA Today, she attacked the former president’s behavior as being “antithetical to the Jesus we serve,” while suggesting that Trump has helped evangelicalism become synonymous with “hypocrisy and disingenuousness.”
“My faith and my church have become a laughing stock, and any attempt by its members to defend the actions of Trump at this time sound hollow and insincere,” Duford wrote.
“One of my grandfather’s favorite verses was Micah 6:8, in which we are told that the Lord requires of his people to do justly, to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly,” she said. “These are the attributes of our faith we should present to the world. We can no longer allow our church leaders to represent our faith so erroneously.”
Franklin Graham, an evangelical leader and the son of Billy Graham, condemned the Evangelicals for Harris group for using footage of his father in an attack ad.
“The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris. They even developed a political ad trying to use my father Billy Graham’s image,” Franklin Graham posted on X, formerly Twitter.
“They are trying to mislead people. Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President Trump in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father’s views and opinions would not have changed.”
Franklin Graham, a devout Trump supporter, is Duford’s uncle and one of the most prominent Christian figures in the country.
Responding to Duford’s endorsement of Harris, the @VanwormerYvonne account posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Have to say, this is so refreshing to read and hear about the Evangelicals For Harris.
“The last 7 years of seeing them and Christians support a lying, cheating, hateful person made me lose my faith. They were hijacked just like ‘patriotism’ and the flag.”