An Evangelical organization that spent $1 million on anti-Trump, pro-Kamala Harris ads leading up to the 2024 election has apologized for featuring the words of world-famous evangelist Billy Graham in its advertisements and contrasting them with the words of President Trump, a controversial move that led to threats of a lawsuit from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
For background, Evangelicals for Harris — now renamed Evangelicals for America — launched a series of ads during the 2024 election cycle that created a firestorm of controversy due to the unauthorized use of quotes from the Rev. Billy Graham juxtaposed with quotes from President Trump. Months after the ads ran, the organization released a statement on July 8, 2025, apologizing for committing copyright infringement.
In response to the ads, Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son, was outraged, writing on X on August 14, 2024, “The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris.” He added, “They even developed a political ad trying to use my father @BillyGraham’s image. They are trying to mislead people.”
Moreover, Graham said that his father was ardently conservative, telling his X followers, “Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President @realDonaldTrump
in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father’s views and opinions would not have changed.” In response, Evangelicals for America wrote, “Praying for you.”
In addition, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association reportedly threatened to sue Evangelicals for America — then named Evangelicals for Harris — based on alleged copyright infringement committed by using Billy Graham’s words and likeness without consent. The campaign had prominently featured a clip of Rev Graham saying, “But you must realize that in the last days, the times will be full of danger,” Graham declares. “Men will become utterly self-centered and greedy for money,” juxtaposed with a clip of President Trump saying, “My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy. I’ve grabbed all the money I could get. I’m so greedy.”
In a statement shared with Religion News Service, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said that they had reached out to Evangelicals for Harris about the “unauthorized, political use of BGEA’s copyrighted video,” adding that Graham “never criticized presidents publicly and would undoubtedly refuse to let his sermons be used to do so, regardless of who is involved.”
Furthermore, Evangelicals for America responded by apologizing for its use of content “as to which BGEA claims copyright or other legal interests,” adding, “Our intent was not to infringe on BGEA’s copyright or to give the impression that Rev. Graham would have taken a side in publicly supporting one political candidate or another in an election, so we apologize to BGEA.”
Additionally, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association responded graciously to the apology from Evangelicals from America, telling Religion News Service that the apology “speaks for itself” while defending Franklin Graham’s decision to decry the use of his father’s words in the ads.
Featured image credit: Shutterstock