JONESBORO, Ga. -- Kamala Harris on Sunday summoned Black churchgoers to turn out at the polls and got a big assist from music legend Stevie Wonder, who rallied congregants with a rendition of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song."
Harris visited two Atlanta-area churches as part of a nationwide push known as "souls to the polls." It's a mobilization effort led by the National Advisory Board of Black Faith Leaders, which is sending representatives across battleground states to encourage early voting.
After services, buses took congregants straight to early polling places.
At both churches, Harris delivered a message about kindness and lifting people up rather than insulting them, trying to set up an implicit contrast with the brash style of Republican Donald Trump, who campaigned in Pennsylvania on Sunday with a stop at a McDonald's, an evening town hall meeting and a Pittsburgh Steelers home game.
With just 16 days left until Election Day, Harris is running out of time to get across her message to a public still getting to know her after a truncated campaign.
"There is so much at stake right now," she said at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro. "Our strength is not based on who we beat down, as some would try to suggest. Our strength is based on who we lift up. And that spirit is very much at stake in these next 16 days."
Wonder led the crowd in singing his version of "Happy Birthday" to the vice president, who turned 60 on Sunday. When he was done, she appeared to choke up, saying, "I love you so much."
Wonder grinned and said "don't cry" before telling the crowd how important it was for people to get out and vote.
"We're going to make the difference between yesterday and tomorrow," he said.
Harris later said she "had to check off a whole big one" on her bucket list because Wonder sang her the birthday song, which prompted the singer to spring up and lead the congregation in a quick verse of "Higher Ground."
"Souls to the Polls" traces back to the Civil Rights Movement. The Rev. George Lee, a Black entrepreneur from Mississippi, was killed by white supremacists in 1955 after he helped nearly 100 Black residents register to vote in the town of Belzoni. The cemetery where Lee is buried has served as a polling place.
Black church congregations across the country have undertaken get-out-the-vote campaigns for years. In part to counteract voter suppression tactics that date back to the Jim Crow era, early voting in the Black community is stressed from pulpits nearly as much as it is by candidates.
The number of voters that campaigns can reach at Black churches, however, may be lower than it has been in the past. Black Protestant churches, like other churches across the country, have seen membership declines in recent years. The percentage of Black Protestants who say they generally attend church at least once a month dropped to 46% in 2022, down from 61% in 2019, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
In Georgia, early voting began Tuesday, and more than 310,000 people voted that day, more than doubling the first-day total in 2020. A record 5 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Earlier Sunday, the Democratic presidential nominee attended New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, where the congregation also sang "Happy Birthday."
At New Birth, Harris told congregants that she was guided by the teachings of the Bible from an early age and that growing up in a Black church in Oakland, Calif., has shaped her leadership style. When Harris was a young girl, a neighbor and family friend took her to the 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, where she learned to live by the creed that God "asks us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves" and to "defend the rights of the poor and the needy," she said.
Wearing a skirt suit and a pink ribbon to commemorate "Pink Sunday" for breast cancer awareness, Harris said she learned from the parable of the good Samaritan that people of faith should "understand that in the face of a stranger, one should see a neighbor."
She described the election as a consequential decision for people of faith, arguing that the "country is at a crossroads."
The question, the vice president said, is "what kind of country do we want to live in? A country of chaos, fear and hate, or a country of freedom, compassion and justice?"
"The great thing about living in a democracy is that we the people have the power to answer that question. So let us answer, not just through our words but through our action and with our votes."
New Birth Pastor Jamal Bryant called the vice president "an American hero, the voice of the future" and "our fearless leader." He also used his sermon to welcome the idea of America electing its first woman president, saying, "It takes a real man to support a real woman."
"When Black women roll up their sleeves, then society has got to change," he said.
One congregant who got a hug from Harris was 98-year-old Opal Lee, an activist who pushed to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday.
Harris is a Baptist. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. She has said she's inspired by the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and influenced by the religious traditions of her mother's native India as well as the Black church. As a child, Harris sang in the choir at 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland.
Also Sunday, Harris sat for an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton and was asked about the idea that she might see her support slipping among Black men -- some of whom might be reluctant to vote for a woman for president. Former President Barack Obama suggested that might be an issue during a recent campaign stop for Harris in Pittsburgh.
According to a recent Pew poll, among Black registered voters, 72% of men and 85% of women support Harris. Those are strong majorities, but Harris' numbers with Black voters are weaker than President Joe Biden's were at this point in 2020.
Harris said she had garnered support from many key Black male leaders, adding, "there's this narrative about what kind of support we are receiving from Black men that is just not panning out in reality."
On Monday, she will campaign with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Information for this article was contributed by Colleen Long and Will Weissert of The Associated Press and by Maeve Reston of The Washington Post.