It was that point in the evening: dinner plates were cleared; speeches had run long; people were chatting, milling or eyeing the exit.
asserted
people → clear → exit
But then the Rev Dr Frederick Douglass Haynes III took the stage.
asserted
III → take → stage
Bald, bearded, bespectacled and dressed in black, he delivered a mix of fiery sermon and performance poetry.
asserted
he → dress → sermon
Soon the guests were back in their seats – rapt, listening, clapping and whooping.
asserted
guests → listen → seats
Aiming to succeed Democratic star Jasmine Crockett in Texas’s 30th congressional district, he danced like a butterfly with references to the boxer Muhammad Ali and rapper Tupac Shakur.
asserted
he → aim → boxer
But he also stung like a bee, branding Donald Trump as “President Pickpocket” and Republicans as the authors of racist gerrymandering and voter suppression.
asserted
he → sting → gerrymandering
“It’s not enough for us Democrats to diagnose the demolition,” Haynes, 65, thundered at last month’s Opal Lee empowerment gala, a Democratic fundraiser in Fort Worth, Texas.
asserted
Haynes → ’ → Worth
“We have to have the vision for a new reconstruction.
asserted
We → have → reconstruction
You see, it’s one thing to talk about how sorry, trifling, cheating and tacky the Republicans are.
asserted
Republicans → see → ?
That’s well known.
asserted
That → ’ → ?
It’s another thing to have our own vision of reconstructing what this nation should look like.”
asserted
nation → ’ → what
The speech reflected a growing trend of religious left candidates aiming to reclaim a faith-based politics they believe has been hijacked by white evangelicals allied with Trump.
asserted
they → reflect → Trump
Haynes, who is African American, is unabashedly progressive, advocating for equitable urban planning, a living wage, laws to dismantle environmental racism, universal healthcare, and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
asserted
who → advocate → Enforcement
Yet for four decades as senior pastor at the Friendship-West Baptist church, a progressive megachurch in Dallas, Haynes had consistently resisted calls to seek office.
asserted
Haynes → resist → office
When Crockett vacated her House seat in the 30th district to run – unsuccessfully – for the US Senate, young progressive activists urged Haynes to run.
asserted
activists → vacate → Haynes
He initially declined.
asserted
He → decline → ?
When he spoke to the Guardian in Fort Worth, and in a phone interview earlier this year, Haynes recalled: “I have always seen myself, in the language of Jesse Jackson, as a tree shaker and not a jelly maker.
asserted
I → speak → shaker
We try to make a difference from the outside, working with those who are on the inside.”
asserted
who → try → inside
The turning point came last December, a week before the filing deadline, when activists challenged him on theological grounds: he had offered political excuses but had not prayed about it.
asserted
he → come → it
“I find that ironic,” Haynes laughed, “that they would challenge a pastor to pray!”
asserted
they → find → pastor
After consulting the Georgia senator and pastor Raphael Warnock, Haynes reflected deeply.
asserted
Haynes → consult → senator
“In one of my prayer times I felt the spirit saying to me, ‘You’ve been talking a lot of smack from the outside, now you have a chance to do something significant on the inside: it’s time to step up.’”
asserted
it → feel → inside
Haynes won a decisive primary victory and is likely to succeed Crockett after next month’s midterm elections.
asserted
Haynes → win → elections
Social justice is embedded in Haynes’s DNA.
asserted
justice → embed → DNA
Born in Dallas and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he was named for his grandfather, the Rev Frederick Douglass Haynes Sr (who had named himself after the abolitionist Frederick Douglass), pastor of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco and, in 1945, the first African American to run for the city’s board of supervisors.
asserted
who → bear → supervisors
His grandfather’s church hosted giants such as WEB Du Bois, Paul Robeson, Josephine Baker and Martin Luther King Jr.
asserted
church → host → Bois
His father, Frederick Douglass Haynes Jr, also pastored the church but died at 46 on what was the 14-year-old Haynes’s first day of high school.
asserted
what → pastore → school
“Understanding that personal piety and social responsibility go together is part of my DNA and my understanding of the Black prophetic church tradition,” Haynes said.
asserted
Haynes → understand → tradition
After college and a brief stint at a San Francisco bank, Haynes returned to Dallas in 1982 to pastor Friendship-West.
asserted
Haynes → return → West
Over 40 years, he grew the congregation from 83 members to more than 13,000.
asserted
he → grow → 13,000
A benevolence fund quickly expanded into a wider critique of poverty.
asserted
fund → expand → poverty
He explained: “We should not just be concerned about doing ministry to those who’ve been made poor but we’ve got to question the systems in the richest country on the planet that create poverty.”
asserted
that → explain → poverty
That led him to team up with the California congresswoman Maxine Waters to fight predatory payday lending in Texas.
asserted
That → lead → Texas
Members of Haynes’s church and local Democrats view his foray into politics with enthusiasm.
asserted
Members → view → enthusiasm
Alan Bean, founder of Friends of Justice, a grassroots alliance that advocates for criminal justice reform, has known Haynes since 2006 and the Jena Six case in Louisiana, when six Black teenagers faced severe charges meant for adults.
asserted
teenagers → advocate → adults
Bean, a retired Baptist minister, said: “Freddy Haynes and his church sent six buses of people to Jena.
asserted
Haynes → say → Jena
Long before running for Congress, Dr Haynes has been a real presence across Texas and the country as a leader for justice.”
asserted
Haynes → run → justice
He praised Haynes as a “man of action, conviction and deep integrity”, adding that his preaching “blends old-style Black preaching with hip-hop rhythms and language …
asserted
preaching → praise → rhythms
The media will eat him up because he’s great for a soundbite.”
asserted
he → eat → soundbite
Bean’s daughter, Lydia Bean, 45, who is running for the Tarrant county clerkship, commented: “For all these years we’ve been working together to hold elected officials accountable to better values, so it’s exciting to see him becoming an elected official.
asserted
him → run → values
…and 55 more, not listed.
The Aporia
