(RNS) — A pair of advocacy groups have released a new political advertisement featuring the Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, urging people to vote and referencing her headline-grabbing sermon from last year in which she asked President Donald Trump to “have mercy” on immigrant children.
The new ad, posted on YouTube on Monday (Oct. 5) and slated to run in at least four states ahead of the midterm elections, opens with a clip of Budde standing in the pulpit of the Washington National Cathedral in January 2025, as she delivered the much-discussed sermon to the president the day after his inauguration. It draws from a section of the sermon where Budde addressed Trump directly, asking the president to “have mercy” on those “whose children fear that their parents will be taken away,” alongside footage of masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
The ad then switches to Budde, who recently announced her intention to resign as the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, speaking directly to the camera.
“We have all borne witness to the events of the last two years,” Budde says. “So today, I am asking you, again, to have mercy. Just as importantly, I am asking for your courage to love your neighbor, to respect the dignity of every human being, and now, to vote.”
The new ad appears aimed at capitalizing on dwindling support for Trump’s immigration agenda, especially among white mainliners — many of whom celebrated Budde when she challenged Trump in the cathedral’s pews last year. Budde’s sermon sparked a sharp rebuke from Trump and his allies at the time, with the president referring to her in a social media post as a “so-called bishop.”
Budde’s get-out-the-vote ad is part of a “Choose Love, not ICE” campaign launched last year by two liberal-leaning groups — Interfaith Alliance, a religious advocacy organization, and Protect Democracy, a secular group. A spokesperson for the groups told Religion News Service the new spot featuring Budde will run in four media markets: Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Raleigh, North Carolina.
The media markets overlap with multiple hotly contested congressional races, including at least two in Iowa that feature clergy as Democratic candidates: the Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran pastor and state senator vying for the state’s third congressional district, and the Rev. Lindsay James, a Presbyterian pastor and state representative campaigning for the state’s second congressional district.
Representatives for the Republican and Democratic national committees did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new ad.
Despite making mass deportation a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, a March survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that support for Trump’s handling of immigration dropped across every major religious group polled. That shift was especially pronounced among white non-evangelical Protestants, the religious subset that includes Budde and the denomination she serves. Their support for Trump’s immigration policies dropped 20 points since March 2025, dipping from 64% to 46%.
Statistics pointing to increased opposition to Trump’s mass deportation efforts among white mainliners follow more than a year of faith-based advocacy against his policies, much of which was led by mainline clergy such as Budde. Clergy from virtually all major mainline Protestant traditions — such as the Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), and the United Church of Christ, among others — have garnered national media attention for taking part in dramatic protests with other religious leaders against the administration’s ongoing deportation efforts. Seven faith leaders were arrested last November at a protest outside an ICE facility in Illinois; nearly 100 were arrested at a single protest outside the Minneapolis airport in January; and seven were arrested in Vermont last month while demonstrating near the offices of an ICE targeting center.
Some mainline clergy protesting ICE have been shot with pepper balls and pepper rounds fired by Department of Homeland Security agents, and several mainline denominations — including the Episcopal Church — have joined a growing list of lawsuits challenging various aspects of the president’s immigration agenda.
At the same time, some evangelical clergy have spoken about their support of the ICE raids.
The “Choose Love, not ICE” campaign has featured images from some of the anti-ICE protests in its three previous ads, including one that celebrated the religious pushback to ICE. The series seeks to highlight the intensity of tactics used by DHS agents, which have long been a source of controversy: The first ad in the series, released last December, edited together clips of DHS agents and police officers violently detaining immigrants and protesters — including clergy — as a lone child sings the Christian hymn “O Holy Night.”
