COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — President Joe Biden‘s recent campaigning in South Carolina saw him meet repeatedly with black churchgoers in the Columbia area, foreshadowing a clear effort by the president’s team to leverage religion in contrasting Biden with former President Donald Trump.

Biden, who is a Catholic, attends Mass weekly and routinely discusses how his faith has shaped his political beliefs — themes he expounded on in remarks delivered to two separate black churches on Sunday. The president’s 2024 campaign had looked to South Carolina, the Democrats’ first official primary contest, to counter a perceived lack of enthusiasm surrounding Biden’s reelection effort, specifically regarding black Southern voters, compared to the previous general election.

The president’s 2020 White House bid was in no small part saved by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), a co-chair of Biden’s 2024 campaign, and black South Carolinians, for which the president opted to move the Palmetto State ahead of New Hampshire on the primary calendar.

Nevertheless, Biden’s faith could pose a problem for some Democrats, specifically regarding the subject of abortion. Biden has personally stated he is against abortion but believes that a woman’s right to choose supersedes his own opinions. However, Democratic operatives told the Washington Examiner that Vice President Kamala Harris’s elevation to the unofficial face of the administration and the campaign’s reproductive rights push was meant to counter any doubts that Biden’s Catholic faith might present to voters regarding what is arguably the top social issue of the 2024 cycle.

The president attended a Sunday service at St. John Baptist Church in Columbia and was joined by Clyburn, White House Office of Public Engagement Director Stephen Benjamin, and other aides and surrogates. According to the Biden campaign, St. John’s is the personal church of Benjamin, who previously served three terms as the mayor of Columbia, and WNBA star Aja Wilson, whose grandfather was a pastor during the civil rights movement.

“We’re all imperfect beings, all of us, and we don’t know where fate is going to take us or when it’s going to take us. It can, like many of you, and me, snatch an entire family from your grip with an accident,” the president said, alluding to the deadly car crash that killed his first wife and daughter. “But we can do our best to seek the light and the hope and love.

“You know, from where I come from, that’s the power of faith,” Biden continued. “That’s the power of faith. … That’s what the black church has done for American, black Americans for their — I mean, imagine what would have happened would there been no black church all those periods of darkness?”

Later in the day, Biden again addressed a black church congregation, this time warning attendees at the Sunday lunch at Brookland Baptist about how the Bible cautions against lies, including those told by Trump about the 2020 election.

“The Bible teaches that we shall know the truth, and the truth shall set us free. Well, I think we do know the truth. We do know the truth. We do know what the choice is here. It’s pretty stark, and it’s about dignity, respect,” the president said. “Folks, it’s important, not just for the African American community but for every community in this country. It’s about who we are. It’s about what — think about it — how the world looks at us.”

Sunday’s appearances follow a speech in early January delivered at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, the site of the 2015 mass shooting that saw nine black parishioners killed by the gunman Dylann Roof.

The Biden campaign did not say if the president would dedicate future campaigning to black churches in other Southern states, including Georgia and North Carolina, but the events this past weekend come as Trump continues to consolidate control of white evangelicals.

Despite his multiple marriages and public behavior, Trump pulled roughly 80% of white evangelical votes nationwide in both the 2016 and 2020 general elections.

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And in the Republicans’ first primary election contests of the cycle, the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, the former president again dominated the demographic despite facing a litany of federal indictments since leaving office.

In Iowa, more than half of white evangelicals supported Trump over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and a host of additional options. Furthermore, a winnowed field in New Hampshire saw Trump’s share of the demographic grow to 70% in the state.