The Rev. Christopher McKee Jr., lead pastor of The Church of Oakland in Jacksonville's Eastside, has organized voter mobilization efforts in both Florida and Ohio since he became a pastor in 2013. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 22, 2026 at 5:38 pm
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Jacksonville-area Black churches, which long have acted as focal points of civic engagement, are rallying their congregants to vote. Black voter turnout has historically been stronger when Black candidates are at the top of the ticket, as they are in this year’s races for Florida governor and U.S. Senate.
Jarrett Washington is the pastor of Saint Stephen African Methodist Episcopal Church in Springfield.
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With a political science degree from the College of Charleston, the South Carolina native says the Black church is often the center point of the community, and he knows he can affect voter engagement.
“As a pastor, we work tirelessly to get people registered to vote,” Washington says. “I think the strongest issue and problem that we have (in the Black community) is voter mobilization having an actual plan to vote.”
Since President Barack Obama’s second presidential victory in 2012, Black voter turnout in Duval has lagged behind electoral participation for white voters.
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In the 2022 midterm election, for example, 40.8% of registered Black voters participated — well below the 59.2% of white Duval voters who did.
“The Black church has always been a spot where Black elected officials go to first — actually white elected officials go to first too,” says Florida A&M University Associate Professor of political science Abdul Sharif. “If they want to get the Black vote, you go to a Black church.”
The Rev. Christopher McKee leads the Church of Oakland on Jacksonville’s Eastside. He openly supports Democrat David Jolly’s gubernatorial campaign (though churches as entities are prohibited under the U.S. tax code from endorsing political candidates).
Jolly, who is white, is running against Republican Byron Donalds, who would be the first Black Republican to be elected governor of a U.S. state. Either Donalds or Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon would be the first Black person elected to statewide office in the Florida’s 181-year history.
McKee acknowledges voters have a chance to make history, albeit with two candidates who are running on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
“This is a great opportunity to have real conversations about the comprehensive nature of a candidate,” McKee says. “Where do they stand on policy? Where do they stand on love of neighbor? Where do they stand on policies that help to lift people? When we look at this state, the affordability crisis we’re having, the conversation we need to have with any candidate — regardless of color — is what is your commitment to ensuring opportunity across the state as we see increased gaps, increased disparities and all of those issues that are really important to people.”
McKee’s Church of Oakland hosted the left-leaning national voter-engagement nonprofit the Interfaith Alliance on its The Vote is Sacred bus tour this month. Jacksonville was one of 27 stops on a 16-state tour designed to encourage faith communities to vote.
“Through this tour, we are bringing together diverse faith communities and inspiring local leaders to affirm that democracy belongs to all of us,” said the Interfaith Alliance’s CEO, the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, in a statement.
McKee says he and other local clergy are working with civil rights organizations and voting rights advocates to ensure the transportation and organizational logistics behind participating in the American experiment.
“We know in so many of our communities, it’s a challenge to ensure there are sites available,” McKee says. “We’re being thoughtful about where we’re going to go on Sunday. (We’re) working with a couple of partners to determine what voting site in the urban core needs the most attention so that we’re making sure that we’re lifting the importance of people having access to places to vote.”
Fourteen of Duval County’s 24 early voting sites are within the I-295 beltway, which includes the Urban Core communities. They include the Legends Center in Sherwood; Bradham and Brooks Branch Library in Moncrief and Edward Waters University’s Schell-Sweet Center in New Town.
Over the last two decades, Black voter turnout in Duval has generally increased when Black candidates are at the top of the ticket. The exception was 2024, when Democrat Kamala Harris was the first Black woman of any political party to lead a presidential ticket. That year, the 66.4% Black voter turnout in Duval County was well off the pace from the 79.1% of white voters who participated.
The Donalds campaign has quietly engaged with Black churches throughout the state.
It has not always gone smoothly. Last month, Donalds said he was grilled by a congregant at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, while at least one other congregant immediately walked out at the sight of the Naples congressman near the pulpit.
Black churchgoers vote differently than other people of faith, according to the latest numbers from the Pew Research Center. Nationally, 73% of white evangelical protestants say they would vote for a Republican congressional candidate, while 74% of Black protestants would vote for a Democratic candidate.
And while they stopped short of endorsing specific candidates or political parties, when the National Baptist Convention USA held its board meeting in Jacksonville this January, its leaders said Black church leaders should be frank with congregants about what they see as “the quality and character of those who are running for elected office.”
“We’re speaking not only on behalf of Black people,” National Baptist Convention president, the Rev. Boise Kimber, told reporters at the time. “A lot of poor white people here in Florida who need a voice, and they are taking hold to our voice because their evangelical pastors will not speak on their behalf of not having the proper healthcare, not having food to eat, not having clothes to wear right here in Florida.”
Combating voter misinformation
One of those Black pastors, the Rev. Bernard Thompson, says when he accepted the call to ministry in 1995, he was hesitant to share election information with his congregation.
“But I learned that everyone was doing that except the Black church,” Thompson says. “We have an obligation to the whole person, not just the spiritual side but the side that deals with the world outside of the confines of the church.”
Thompson has been a Fernandina Beach resident for 73 years. He founded New Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Folkston, Georgia, in 2010. He is active in both communities.
“We try to turn voting into a community practice, voting education and participation,” Thompson says. “We encourage candidate forums. People who don’t have rides to the polls, we make our church van available. We hand out literature on the candidates. I don’t encourage people who to vote for, but I do encourage them to participate.”
Souls to the Polls
Black churches have long encouraged their congregants to vote early on a Sunday before Election Day.
In Nassau, Clay and St. Johns counties, that “souls to the polls” push will be on this Sunday, Oct. 25.
In Duval County, early voting sites will be open on both Oct. 25 and on Sunday, Nov. 1 — a second Sunday was added after urging by the Jacksonville NAACP and other civil rights organizations.
And this Saturday, Oct. 24, the True Southern Christian Leadership Conference Florida National Inc. will host a party at Lonnie Miller Park in Sherwood from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to celebrate the people who vote early at the nearby Legends Center.
