"We've got to fight for leadership that's rooted in the values that we were all told were important to Christian faith," said Colom "The values that were told were beyond even religious faith, but were American values: fair play, looking out for other people, winning the right way."
Colom was joined by U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who also serves as senior pastor Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
"I can think of no more sacred calling for us in this moment than to rise up in a multiracial, multireligious, multigenerational coalition of conscience centered in Mississippi," said Warnock. "With the people saying, 'You can't have our democracy.'"
"It doesn't belong to a would-be autocrat and his enablers: it belongs to the people."
Much of the discussion focused on how pastors and faith leaders could impact the race; specifically, in encouraging their congregations to vote.
"Long before I ran for office, long before knew I would run for office, I've been focused on voter registration and mobilization," Warnock said. "Preachers, clergy: tell your people that a vote is a kind of prayer."
Warnock talked about his trip to Jackson, highlighting a trip to the home of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
"It makes me mindful of how deep the sacrifice has been, how much it has cost to get here and, in this election, how high the stakes really are," Warnock said. "Our ballot is a bloodstained ballot."
Healthcare and affordability have been pillars of Colom's platform; at Wednesday's gathering, he framed them as both social and faith issues.
"The stories that you're hearing, at your churches, with your congregation, in your community, those are the stories that I'm hearing on the campaign trail," Colom told clergy. "Those are stories that, unfortunately, our junior senator is choosing to ignore."
Reverend Shirley Harrington, associate pastor at Cade Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, was in attendance and likewise listed healthcare and affordability as major concerns for her and her community.
"Our congregation is just like everybody else: everyone is saying, "When will the prices go down? When will people in Washington understand that they're hurting us more than they're helping us?'" she said. "Those are the cries of the people is that we need relief. We need true equity in services; we need more financial resources for our schools and our hospitals."
Currently, polls have Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith leading Colom in the race. Like Colom, though, Warnock faced an uphill climb in Georgia before being elected the state's first Black senator in 2021.
"We just needed to help people to believe and to turn out, and we kept doing that year after year and after encouraging people to vote, I decided I should give them somebody to vote for, so I decided to run," Warnock said. "The rest is history."
"Who would have thought? That Georgia would flip the United States Senate by sending an African American man, the pastor of Dr. King's church, and a Jewish young man, the son of an immigrant, both touched by John Lewis to the United State Senate."
