Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance has accused Vice President Kamala Harris of harboring bias against Roman Catholics in a fiery op-ed targeting working-class churchgoers in states like Pennsylvania.
“In the White House, Ms. Harris has been an integral part of the most anti-Catholic administration in living memory — ironic given President Joe Biden’s Catholic faith,” Vance, 40, wrote in a scathing piece published Thursday by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“As a Catholic myself, I have a personal investment in ending this consistent pattern of anti-Catholic policies and actions,” the senator from Ohio later added. “But even non-Catholics and nonreligious Americans should be alarmed.”
The op-ed appeared less than a week after Harris, 60, opted not to attend the Archdiocese of New York’s Al Smith Dinner for charity — making her the first major party nominee to skip the white-tie event in 40 years.
Meanwhile, in an interview with NBC News that aired Tuesday night, Harris signaled opposition to any exemption on religious grounds to the codification of abortion rights nationwide, saying: “I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body.”
Just under a third of Pittsburgh residents are Catholics, according to a Pew Research study, while almost a quarter of Pennsylvanians practice the faith, according to census data.
In his op-ed, Vance recalled how then-Sen. Harris in 2018 grilled federal district court nominee Brian Buescher over his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization.
At one point, Harris, now 60, asked Buescher: “Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?”
“Harris suggested that Judge Buescher was unfit to serve on the bench because of his Catholic faith,” Vance wrote. “Any first-year law student would tell you that her line of questioning qualifies as an unconstitutional religious test for public office.”
Vance also called out Harris’ condemnation of the Supreme Court’s 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission decision, in which the high court held that a Colorado baker could not be compelled to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple when he opposed gay marriage on religious grounds.
Vance cited the Do No Harm Act, which Harris introduced in 2019 and would have clamped down on the use of religious exemptions “from laws guaranteeing fundamental civil and legal rights,” in her words.
“If this bill were to become law, Catholic doctors and medical professionals who refuse to perform late-term abortions or subject minors to dangerous, life-altering surgeries could lose their license and face federal discrimination lawsuits,” Vance wrote.
Turning to Harris’ time as vice president, Vance accused the administration of “an absurd double standard.”
“While this administration has been busy targeting suburban Catholic dads, it has essentially ignored the nearly 300 attacks on Catholic churches since the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision in 2022,” he wrote, referencing the 2022 arrest of Mark Houck, a Catholic pro-life activist who was later acquitted of assaulting a pro-abortion rights protester.
“If politicians can use the power of the government to target Catholics for their faith or force them into compromising their beliefs, they can trample any of the rights we hold dear if those rights get in the way of their agenda,” Vance wrote.
The Post contacted the Harris-Walz campaign for comment.
