‘Blessed’: Frederick Haynes, pastor and candidate, on his politics, faith and health

WASHINGTON (RNS) — When the Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III recently visited Capitol Hill with other members of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, he did so as a Texas pastor as well as a candidate for an office there representing his congressional district.

“One of the challenges that I offered was the fact that we have to be ready for the voter suppression and voter intimidation tactics that I believe are being promised,” he said of political opponents during an interview Tuesday (July 21) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, where the PNBC’s annual session was held through Thursday.

“This election — and it’s said every year — but this more than ever is the most important election that will determine, as far as I’m concerned, if this nation is going to be what it aspires to be by way of a democracy, or are we going to just remove all of the guardrails and let the wheels fall off while the oligarchs and the plutocrats run away rich and run away wealthy.”

With decades of ministry in a historically Black megachurch and a short period succeeding the Rev. Jesse Jackson, leader of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition , before his death earlier this year, Haynes said he has plenty of…