{"id":462903,"date":"2026-10-11T10:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T10:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/462903\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T10:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T10:54:10","slug":"when-you-look-at-the-numbers-we-win-the-prophetic-texas-pastor-poised-to-take-jasmine-crocketts-house-seat-us-midterm-elections-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/462903\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018When you look at the numbers, we win\u2019: the prophetic Texas pastor poised to take Jasmine Crockett\u2019s House seat | US midterm elections 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was that point in the evening: dinner plates were cleared; speeches had run long; people were chatting, milling or eyeing the exit. But then the Rev Dr Frederick Douglass Haynes III<\/a> took the stage. Bald, bearded, bespectacled and dressed in black, he delivered a mix of fiery sermon and performance poetry. Soon the guests were back in their seats \u2013 rapt, listening, clapping and whooping.<\/p>\n

Haynes\u2019s rolling cadence was evocative of the pulpit but the political message was far from kumbaya. Aiming to succeed Democratic star Jasmine Crockett<\/a> in Texas\u2019s 30th congressional district, he danced like a butterfly with references to the boxer Muhammad Ali and rapper Tupac Shakur. But he also stung like a bee, branding Donald Trump<\/a> as \u201cPresident Pickpocket\u201d and Republicans<\/a> as the authors of racist gerrymandering and voter suppression.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not enough for us Democrats to diagnose the demolition,\u201d Haynes, 65, thundered at last month\u2019s Opal Lee empowerment gala<\/a>, a Democratic fundraiser in Fort Worth, Texas. \u201cWe have to have the vision for a new reconstruction. You see, it\u2019s one thing to talk about how sorry, trifling, cheating and tacky the Republicans are. That\u2019s well known. It\u2019s another thing to have our own vision of reconstructing what this nation should look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speech reflected a growing trend of religious left candidates aiming to reclaim a faith-based politics they believe has been hijacked by white evangelicals<\/a> allied with Trump. Haynes, who is African American, is unabashedly progressive, advocating for equitable urban planning, a living wage, laws to dismantle environmental racism, universal healthcare, and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n

Yet for four decades as senior pastor at the Friendship-West Baptist church<\/a>, a progressive megachurch in Dallas, Haynes had consistently resisted calls to seek office. When Crockett vacated her House seat in the 30th district to run \u2013 unsuccessfully \u2013 for the US Senate, young progressive activists urged Haynes to run. He initially declined.<\/p>\n

When he spoke to the Guardian in Fort Worth, and in a phone interview earlier this year, Haynes recalled: \u201cI have always seen myself, in the language of Jesse Jackson<\/a>, as a tree shaker and not a jelly maker. We try to make a difference from the outside, working with those who are on the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The turning point came last December, a week before the filing deadline, when activists challenged him on theological grounds: he had offered political excuses but had not prayed about it. \u201cI find that ironic,\u201d Haynes laughed, \u201cthat they would challenge a pastor to pray!\u201d<\/p>\n

After consulting the Georgia senator and pastor Raphael Warnock, Haynes reflected deeply. \u201cIn one of my prayer times I felt the spirit saying to me, \u2018You\u2019ve been talking a lot of smack from the outside, now you have a chance to do something significant on the inside: it\u2019s time to step up.\u2019\u201d Haynes won a decisive primary victory and is likely to succeed Crockett after next month\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Social justice is embedded in Haynes\u2019s DNA. Born in Dallas and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he was named for his grandfather, the Rev Frederick Douglass Haynes Sr (who had named himself<\/a> after the abolitionist Frederick Douglass), pastor of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco<\/a> and, in 1945, the first African American to run for the city\u2019s board of supervisors.<\/p>\n

His grandfather\u2019s church hosted giants such as WEB Du Bois, Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker and Martin Luther King Jr. His father, Frederick Douglass Haynes Jr<\/a>, also pastored the church but died at 46 on what was the 14-year-old Haynes\u2019s first day of high school. \u201cUnderstanding that personal piety and social responsibility go together is part of my DNA and my understanding of the Black prophetic church tradition,\u201d Haynes said.<\/p>\n

After college and a brief stint at a San Francisco bank, Haynes returned to Dallas in 1982 to pastor Friendship-West<\/a>. Over 40 years, he grew the congregation from 83 members to more than 13,000.<\/p>\n

Haynes speaks at the For the Love of Our Children gala in New York City on 11 February 2019. Photograph: Bennett Raglin\/Getty Images for Gala for National Cares Mentoring Movement<\/p>\n

A benevolence fund quickly expanded into a wider critique of poverty. He explained: \u201cWe should not just be concerned about doing ministry to those who\u2019ve been made poor but we\u2019ve got to question the systems in the richest country on the planet that create poverty.\u201d That led him to team up with the California congresswoman Maxine Waters<\/a> to fight predatory payday lending in Texas.<\/p>\n

Members of Haynes\u2019s church and local Democrats view his foray into politics with enthusiasm. Alan Bean<\/a>, founder of Friends of Justice, a grassroots alliance that advocates for criminal justice reform, has known Haynes since 2006 and the Jena Six case<\/a> in Louisiana, when six Black teenagers faced severe charges meant for adults.<\/p>\n

Bean, a retired Baptist minister, said: \u201cFreddy Haynes and his church sent six buses of people to Jena. Long before running for Congress, Dr Haynes has been a real presence across Texas<\/a> and the country as a leader for justice.\u201d He praised Haynes as a \u201cman of action, conviction and deep integrity\u201d, adding that his preaching \u201cblends old-style Black preaching with hip-hop rhythms and language \u2026 The media will eat him up because he\u2019s great for a soundbite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bean\u2019s daughter, Lydia Bean, 45, who is running for the Tarrant county clerkship, commented: \u201cFor all these years we\u2019ve been working together to hold elected officials accountable to better values, so it\u2019s exciting to see him becoming an elected official. Now we\u2019re going to have to hold him accountable as well!\u201d<\/p>\n

At last month\u2019s fundraiser in Fort Worth, EJ Carrion<\/a>, 37, a business owner, welcomed Haynes\u2019s politics. \u201cI\u2019m excited about the progressive values \u2013 fighting for equity and against racism and standing up for DEI. His authenticity and passion are so present. He tackles social justice without creating an us-against-them friction; he does it in a way that\u2019s nuanced and clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clergy members saw politics as a seamless extension of faith. Pastor Dwayne Hysmith, 59, who oversees 23 Fort Worth churches, said: \u201cHe\u2019s very charismatic. He connects with the audience. He can speak from poetry to R&B to spiritually connected all in one, so a person that\u2019s 16 years old to a person that\u2019s 95 can understand the message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hysmith was not surprised to see Haynes running for elected office. \u201cThe Bible is a political and a social justice realm, so from Exodus all the way to Revelation, you\u2019ll see politics and social justice in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haynes\u2019s candidacy is part of a broader movement of progressive clergy taking on the Christian right. At least 14 Democratic clergy<\/a> members are running in the midterms across a dozen states, including fellow Texan James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian running for US Senate against the state\u2019s attorney general, Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n

Haynes draws a sharp distinction between progressive liberation theology and white Christian nationalism. Quoting King, he lamented that \u201cwhite evangelicals are so busy being white, they don\u2019t get around to being evangelical\u201d. He traces Christian nationalism directly from slave traders and Bull Connor<\/a>, an Alabama politician who unleashed dogs and fire hoses on peaceful protesters in the 1960s, to the present.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s the same DNA that can support a Donald Trump, who has no Christian tendencies whatsoever,\u201d Haynes argued. \u201cAs a matter of fact he\u2019s closer to the antichrist than anybody I\u2019ve ever witnessed. Yet they support him because he appeals to their whiteness and so, even if they marry wickedness to it, as long as their whiteness is taken care of, they\u2019re fine with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s dangerous. It\u2019s anti-Christian, it\u2019s anti-Christ, but unfortunately in this country they are the heirs to a legacy of misusing faith in order to further an agenda of greed and power.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Haynes does not spare his own party from criticism. He believes Democrats have made a strategic and moral error by retreating from faith-based rhetoric. He points to the presidential campaigns of his mentor, the Rev Jesse Jackson<\/a>, in 1984 and 1988. Haynes, who briefly succeeded Jackson as the president of the Rainbow Push Coalition, credits Jackson with introducing progressive policies into the Democratic mainstream from a \u201cfaith-based prophetic perspective\u201d.<\/p>\n

Haynes speaks during a conversation about race and policing at the Friendship-West Baptist church in Dallas on 10 July 2016. Photograph: Rex C Curry\/AP<\/p>\n

Does this risk alienating the increasing number of secular or non-Christian voters? \u201cThe common denominator for all of us is humanity. If you care about human beings, we can work together. I\u2019m not trying to proselytise. I believe every American should have access to opportunities from a justly wired society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haynes\u2019s platform rests on three domestic pillars and an uncompromising foreign policy. First, economic security through economic justice. Labelling it absurd that 140 million Americans are economically insecure, Haynes demands true cost-of-living wages and universal healthcare.<\/p>\n

He slammed Trump\u2019s midterm convention in Dallas as a \u201chot mess\u201d and a burden on taxpayers: \u201cWe cannot afford Trump \u2013 he\u2019s the face of the affordability crisis. We cannot afford Republican policies that cater to the Epstein billionaire class while crushing those who are poor and left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second is environmental justice. In Dallas, life expectancy varies by 15 to 20 years between neighbourhoods just 15 minutes apart due to pollution and asthma. Haynes pledges to fight corporate encroachment and datacentres in vulnerable areas. Third is ending the \u201ccold civil war\u201d driven by Confederate-era policies and corporate greed, building unity around common solutions.<\/p>\n

This domestic vision is paired with an unflinching critique of US foreign policy. He views the Trump administration\u2019s global actions as a \u201cdisaster for humanity\u201d, pointing to the hypocrisy of the US targeting Venezuela and Iran<\/a> out of an agenda driven by greed and a thirst for oil.<\/p>\n

In a departure from the Democratic establishment, Haynes is uncompromising in his condemnation of US policy regarding Israel and Gaza<\/a>. \u201cThis country has sided with Israel in a full-on genocide,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to clearly state that hatred in any form is dead wrong, and so antisemitism is dead wrong, but so is Islamophobia, so is the extermination, the genocide of people in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echoing King\u2019s warnings about Vietnam<\/a> to argue that the bombs dropped abroad inevitably explode the moral authority and spirit of the country at home, he added: \u201cAmerica\u2019s hands are bloody when it comes to what has taken place with the Palestinians, what is going on in Iran. America\u2019s hands are bloody and dirty and it\u2019s something that people of good conscience and goodwill believe is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haynes said his campaign listening sessions strengthened his resolve to get big money out of politics. \u201cRight now we are calling ourselves a democracy but we are tilting toward fascism fueled with oligarchic tendencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haynes is a longtime friend of Crockett and has been taking her advice during the campaign. He describes her as \u201ca unique superstar\u201d and \u201cthe most popular Democrat in the country right now\u201d. Yet Talarico defeated her in the Democratic Senate primary in March.<\/p>\n

With Crockett having won the 30th district with 85% of the vote in 2024, Haynes appears poised for victory over Republican Everett Jackson<\/a>, a small-business owner and community organiser, in November. Meanwhile, polls show Talarico in an excruciatingly tight race with Paxton.<\/p>\n

Haynes believes Texas can finally turn blue. \u201cWhen you look at the numbers of people who voted in the primary, we win. That\u2019s the big fear that Republicans have because unfortunately they don\u2019t have vision except to suppress and to hold people down and make sure the billionaire Epstein class is taken care of,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats have a vision, and all we have to do is continue to organise and give voice to those who feel they have no voice and lift up a vision of liberty and justice and affordability. If we do that, there\u2019s no way we cannot win. If we take advantage of that fighting spirit of Jasmine Crockett, we can turn this state blue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was that point in the evening: dinner plates were cleared; speeches had run long; people were chatting,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-462903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}