Franklin Graham, son of the legendary Rev. Billy Graham, visited Colorado Tuesday as part of a whistle-stop tour crisscrossing the nation in 2016.

As part of Graham’s “Decision America 2016 Tour,” an estimated crowd of 2,000 people gathered at the state Capitol waving American flags. It resembled a campaign stop in every way, except one: Graham’s name is not on the ballot.

But, he suggested, God’s name is.

Graham is not officially endorsing any presidential candidate this election cycle, although he has made positive remarks about frontrunner Donald Trump. Instead, Graham has launched a “campaign for God” with the goal of reaching millions of Americans who identify as Christians and who didn’t vote in the last election to become re-engaged in the political process.

Reach he just might.

According to Graham, a whopping 68 percent of Colorado’s 5.3 million residents identify as Christians. That is an awful lot of purchasing power at the ballot box for Christian and conservative causes.

Graham wants Colorado’s Christian voters to imagine that power in action.

“Too many Christians say, ‘My vote doesn’t count,’” said Graham, speaking from the west steps of the Colorado state Capitol building.

Franklin Graham Holds Prayer Rally on West Steps of Colorado State Capitol (Video from The Colorado Statesman)

Disproving this notion, Graham cited critical races such as the 2008 race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman in Minnesota in which as few as 312 votes made the difference.

“Can we say that 200-some Christians stayed home that day? Probably,” said Graham.

In the 2012 presidential election, millions of faith-based voters stayed home from the polls, too. According to Ralph Reed at the Faith and Freedom Coalition, only 51 percent of voters who cast votes in primaries or caucuses in 2012 were evangelicals.

Many pundits believe that low evangelical turnout contributed to the re-election of President Obama, who was not a favored candidate in many polls taken of people who identified themselves as faith-based voters.

Graham and Reed do not want history to repeat itself.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition predicts the number of evangelicals who will vote in 2016 will be nearly 60 percent of the voting population.

In his speech, Graham went on to state the obvious, that the race for the White House is not the only contest that matters, but down-ticket races like U.S. Senate as well.

One lawmaker aspiring to higher office agreed.

“Dr. Graham made a timely call for people of faith to again become involved in all aspects of life and practice their faith in the public square,” said state Sen. Tim Neville (R-Littleton) a conservative who is running for U.S. Senate this year. “I agree that involvement can be a positive difference-maker in the future direction of our country.”

Graham added that it is not enough to simply show up at the polls this November. He encouraged the crowd to run for office themselves, or to recruit others from their prayer groups to run for office.

“Run,” he said. “You can make a difference.”

Graham cited contests such as school board elections as important. He noted liberal school board agendas, religious liberty battles and the removal of God from schools as battles that people of faith are fighting.

“Men and women of God need to take a stand,” he said to the crowd assembled in Denver. “Many say, ‘Well, the enemy is already at the gate.’ Do you know why? We’ve left the gates open.”

During his stop in Denver, Graham encouraged people to “Sign the Pledge” to take our country back. He encouraged people to join his statewide prayer groups on Facebook. His team is even offering complimentary journals for individuals wishing to lead prayer groups to pray for our nation.

Although GOP frontrunner Trump is surprising pollsters and pundits alike by winning evangelical voters, it remains to be seen if he can keep their support through the general election.

It also remains to be seen if millions of faith-based voters across America will heed Graham’s call in 2016, or if they will keep with recent trends, allowing their faith to stop at the cathedral door.

— jennifer@coloradostatesman.com