In 2020, a group of Donald Trump’s religious-right supporters announced the “50 Day Fight,” a spiritual warfare project to defeat “the enemy” and ask God to perform “a second miracle” by giving Trump another victory. This year’s version of the “50 Day Fight” kicked off Sunday night Sept. 15, with anti-equality dominionist Jim Garlow as keynoter and a number of Florida politicians as speakers, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.
The 50-day concept refers to both the 50 days before the election and the 50 states. A promotional video for the project says that participants will be praying “state-by-state for candidates we believe will uphold our biblical values once in office.” Last night featured prayers for Alaskan congressional candidate Nick Begich.
“Tonight, we begin 50 days of getting our country back to its Christian foundation,” said Daniel Bernard, president of Somebody Cares Tampa Bay and organizer of the 50 Day Fight. “It’s going to take the church to be God’s army,” he said, adding that he expected God to show up as captain of the army of angels.
Garlow gained national prominence by organizing against marriage equality among California’s evangelical churches during the 2008 Prop 8 campaign. He is listed as a “facilitator” on the 50 Day Fight website. He told the audience at Community Bible Baptist Church in Pinellas Park, Florida, that Florida was the only state with a chance to defeat an abortion rights measure on the ballot this year “unless we see God move in a miraculous way.”
Garlow was not the only speaker to urge attendees to mobilize against Amendment 4, which would provide state constitutional protection for access to abortion before fetal viability and when a woman’s doctor believes it necessary to protect her health. But Luna, locked in a competitive race, has been dodging questions about how she will vote on the measure, even though, as the New York Times has noted, she “has previously referred to herself as a ‘pro-life extremist'” and said last year that she does not believe in exceptions for “terrible circumstances.”
In his remarks, Garlow equated social justice with Marxism and warned that the United Nations and World Health Organization are out to destroy American sovereignty. He said “globalism is always associated with the spirit of antichrist” and that people with an antichrist spirit hate Trump “because he’s blocking the globalist agenda.”
Garlow also promoted his latest book, “Re-Versed: From Culturally Woke to Biblically Awake,” which claims to cover “biblical foundations” for 60 topics, including climate change, critical race theory, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Garlow offered discounts to people who would buy his book by the case, and announced that he has produced a coloring-book version for kids.
Rep. Luna declared, “We are in a spiritual battle for our country.” Luna confidently predicted that Trump would win this year’s election, saying that “come this November, we will have a praying man again in the White House.”
Florida State Rep. Berny Jacques touted actions taken by the legislature to fight “indoctrination” in education and teacher training, adding, “we also passed the law that allows chaplains now to go into our schools, taking us a step further to bringing God back into our schools.”
Also highlighted were candidates for school board, a judgeship, the St. Petersburg City Council, and Pinellas County Commission.
The project’s website lists a number of religious-right groups as partners and sponsors, including WallBuilders, the Florida Faith & Freedom Coalition, voter turnout operation My Faith Votes, and Intercessors for America. A representative of the Pinellas County-based Florida Faith Foundations asked that their prayers would “pull down these demonic strongholds that have asserted themselves into the atmosphere of the United States of America.”
