DALLAS — Frederick Haynes III says he saw it coming: the blue wave that swept Texas and the U.S. The senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas won election to the U.S. House. “Americans, Texans in particular, said it's time for us to move forward as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” he said. Haynes will succeed outgoing U.S. Rep. Jasmine ...

Frederick Haynes III speaks during a rally in opposition to mid-decade redistricting in Texas, on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas.

Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

DALLAS — Frederick Haynes III says he saw it coming: the blue wave that swept Texas and the U.S.

The senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas won election to the U.S. House. “Americans, Texans in particular, said it's time for us to move forward as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” he said.

Haynes will succeed outgoing U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the 30th Congressional District. He joins Congress as part of a new class of Christian clergy in the Democratic party that saw success in the midterm election. The longtime Dallas pastor will also join a lineage of Black ministers in Congress.

The pastor said the group of clergy in Congress isn't interested in establishing a Christian theocracy. Rather, they want to bring Christian values such as justice and love with them to government.

“Jesus said, ‘I'm anointed to preach good news to the poor, set the captives free, heal those who are broken, proclaim liberation to those who are oppressed,'” Haynes said. “Those are the values of the Christian pastors that the American people responded to.”

Haynes’ election was expected, receiving more than 82% of votes. He campaigned on economic issues and campaigned for other Democrats in Dallas, including for Sen.-elect James Talarico and Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa.

In Tuesday’s election, Haynes saw a rejection of corruption and a backlash against President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott’s mid-cycle redistricting that resulted in a new congressional map that was meant to favor Republicans.

“I see this as a rebuke of anyone who wants to trample on democratic values; I see it as a rebuke of political corruption,” Haynes said.

Democratic clergy notched some of the most notable wins across the country earlier this week.

Presbyterian seminarian Talarico flipped a Republican seat for the U.S. Senate. United Methodist megachurch leader Adam Hamilton became the first Democrat to represent Kansas in the Senate in nearly 100 years. According to the Religious News Service, two Iowa state legislators – a Presbyterian and a Lutheran minister – picked up seats in the U.S. House for Democrats.

Haynes will join two other Black pastors in the Democratic party in Congress: Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

The group of Democratic lawmakers is aligned with the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse Jackson, Haynes said, something that resonated with voters.

“We don't want a theocracy,” he said. “We want a country where, if you believe in God, if you don't believe in God, whatever God you believe in, you feel valued. You feel that you have access to the American dream.”

Eric McDaniel, a religious studies professor at the University of Texas, Austin, said ministers in Congress are nothing new. In fact, many early American elected officials were also religious leaders. And the Black church has been at the forefront of advancing a “faith of liberation,” and its clergy has been “central in understanding Black cultural and political development.”

This new wave of clergy has “mobilized” the religious left, McDaniel said, as a counter to conservative Christian ideas.

“I'm the product of an activism of so many pastors who did not limit their ministry to what happened in worship on Sunday,” Haynes said.

Haynes and the megachurch he leads are known for focusing on social justice.

For his priorities in office, Haynes said he will advocate for universal healthcare and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a proposed bill to strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He plans to be a voice against the war in Iran and "unnecessary wars.” He wants to see a morally consistent foreign policy and an “ethical, a moral pathway to citizenship” after hearing from members in his district impacted by increased immigration enforcement.

He is also in favor of a “true cost of living wage,” saying the minimum wage system cannot accommodate the realities of living in a big city like Dallas compared to smaller cities that have the same wage floor.

The pastor laid out a vision of all the Dallas leaders who came before him, saying he was grateful to stand on their shoulders. There was Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, founder of Concord Church E.K. Bailey, longtime leader of St. Luke Community United Methodist Church and Texas lawmaker Zan Wesley Holmes Jr. and many others.

“Congress will have a moral conscience that is literally in the room,” the Rev. Richie Butler, senior pastor at St. Luke Community UMC and president-elect of the African American Pastors Coalition of North Texas, said of Haynes’ election.

Dallas Gingles, an associate professor of ethics and theology at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, said there’s long been a history of left-of-center participation from Christians “that we're not used to thinking about at this point in Texas.”

Haynes, as well as Talarico and Hamilton, fit into that theological tradition steeped in social activism, Gingles said. While the Democratic party has been suspicious of religious reasoning over the past 50 years, Gingles said there is an untapped desire in the public to hear “religious sensibilities” from Democratic candidates.

“It's almost a resurrection or a resurgence of something that's always been there,” Gingles said of the left-leaning clergy.

Haynes, leader of Friendship-West for more than 40 years, said he will continue preaching at Friendship-West while in office. The pastor was at the church’s young adult Bible study Tuesday night when the election results came in and he saw he had a call from former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Warnock called him on Tuesday night and Talarico spoke with Haynes Wednesday.

“I’m part of a movement that believes that liberty and justice for all is something this country still aspires to,” Haynes said. “The people spoke powerfully on Tuesday.”