Friendship-West Baptist Church — Church Where Haynes Urged Vote
A Dallas congressional candidate used his own pulpit to send worshippers straight to the ballot box last Sunday — at the very church that doubles as an active Dallas County polling site. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church and the Democratic nominee for Texas’s 30th Congressional District, told congregants they could vote at the church and directed them toward a door to do so right after services, according to videos reviewed by the Dallas Express.
Pastor Steers Congregation Toward the Polls
Haynes has led Friendship-West Baptist Church in South Dallas for more than four decades, according to The Guardian, and is now seeking to succeed U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the 30th District. Per the Dallas Express, the videos show Haynes inviting candidates to join him at the front of the sanctuary and promoting curbside voting for congregants with mobility limitations. The church’s banquet hall foyer, at 2020 W. Wheatland Road, appears on Dallas County’s current early voting and Election Day lists, a fact separately confirmed by Yahoo News, which reported that early voting runs October 19 through 30 ahead of the November 3 general election.
Among the remarks Haynes reportedly made from the pulpit was praise for Alisa Simmons, the Tarrant County commissioner for Precinct 2 and the Democratic nominee challenging Republican incumbent County Judge Tim O’Hare. Haynes called for Simmons to come forward and, addressing congregants from Tarrant County, said “we got you,” per the videos cited by the Dallas Express. Simmons’s county judge race appears on Tarrant County ballots, not Dallas County’s, meaning voters cannot actually cast ballots for her at Friendship-West — even as Haynes’s own congressional race appears on Dallas County ballots in District 30.
Republicans Call It a Conflict of Interest
The arrangement has drawn sustained criticism from Dallas-area Republicans. The Dallas County Republican Party has asked officials to remove Friendship-West from the polling-place list because Haynes is a candidate, according to a previous Dallas Express report, and separately told Baptist News Global that the church hosting voting while its pastor is on the ballot presents a conflict of interest. Republican congressional candidate Everett Jackson, who is running against Haynes for the same seat, led a protest outside the church two weeks ago and urged election officials to stop using it as a polling location while Haynes seeks federal office, Yahoo News reported…