BY: Special to Texas Metro News
Washington, DC — Justice Democrats announced their newest endorsement of the election cycle, backing progressive community leader and pastor Reverend Frederick Douglass Haynes III in his campaign for Congress in Texas’s 30th Congressional District. The seat is currently held by Congressmember Jasmine Crockett, who is running for Senate and not running for reelection in TX-30.
For more than four decades, Rev. Haynes has served Dallas as the Senior Pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church, helping grow a small congregation of fewer than 100 members into more than 13,000 — transforming it into a community hub for civic engagement, economic empowerment, voter education, workforce development, and social change.
Rev. Haynes is running to bring an outside vision to Washington: one that brings the voices of everyday people into Congress and turns their real-life experiences into policy that delivers dignity, opportunity, and security for all.
JD’s eleventh endorsement touts an impressive history of
leadership and dedicated service
Instead of more corporate talking points and political convenience, Rev. Haynes is running to deliver economic security, environmental justice, and ending the war on our communities at home and abroad.
“I’m honored to earn the endorsement of Justice Democrats, and grateful to stand in community with their movement to ensure we build a team in Congress that puts the voices of working people over the interests of lobbyists and billionaire donors,” said Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, candidate for Congress in TX-30. “This campaign
is about prioritizing people over politics, service over slogans, and results over rhetoric. Leadership matters, and my life’s work has prepared me to lead with courage and a relentless commitment to the people — because the people deserve nothing less.”
“Justice Democrats is proud to endorse Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III in his bid to bring the voices of the people to the halls of Congress,” said Alexandra Rojas, Executive Director of Justice Democrats. “As the affordability crisis deepens and more and more families are torn apart in Texas and beyond, the Dallas community deserves a leader who will fight for their needs, not bend the knee to lobbyists and corporate PACs.
Over decades of Rev. Haynes’s leadership and dedication to his people, he has embodied what it means to lead, to listen, and to stand up for what is right – no matter the political consequence — and that is exactly what we need in Congress right now.”
From the neighborhood block to policy conversations, Rev. Haynes has partnered with leaders at every level of government to fight predatory lending, protect civil and voting rights, expand opportunity for working families, and invest in our young people.
He has worked in partnership with the Center for Responsible Lending, and he helped launch Faith Cooperative Federal Credit Union, which provides small-dollar loans at significantly lower interest rates—keeping families out of cycles of debt and building pathways to financial stability.
Over a decade ago, Haynes organized faith leaders and community members in Dallas to tackle the high concentration of predatory payday lending institutions in Oak Cliff, and then testified before the U.S. House Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. He called for a national interest rate cap on consumer loans, and ultimately his advocacy led to passing the first city ordinance in Texas to protect vulnerable borrowers by regulating payday and auto-title loans in 2011.
Rev. Haynes became the senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas in 1983. Alongside his pastoral duties, in 2014 Rev. Haynes founded the THRIVE Intern and Leadership Program, which has provided young people with paid employment, job training, and leadership development for over a decade.
During the Obama administration, his leadership was recognized by the President and he was invited to the White House to provide input on economic justice, civil rights, and voting access.
Additionally, under his leadership, Friendship-West has also invested more than $3 million in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and in students from across the Dallas community attending colleges and universities.
Rev. Haynes serves in leadership roles with organizations committed to social progress and democratic engagement, including the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, the Conference of National Black Churches, and the IC3 Church Conference. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Paul Quinn College, an HBCU that models innovation, accountability, and community-centered leadership.
As a lifelong learner and educator, Rev. Haynes has earned degrees from Bishop College, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Graduate Theological Foundation, and Christian Theological Seminary. He is a proud husband, father, son, brother, uncle, and
nephew, and lives with his wife, to whom he has been married for 38 years, and their daughter.
Justice Democrats joins incumbent Crockett in endorsing Rev. Haynes’s campaign for Congress in TX-30.
This is Justice Democrats’ 11th endorsement of the election cycle, alongside Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang in California’s 7th Congressional District, State Rep. Claire Valdez in New York’s 7th Congressional District, Junaid Ahmed in Illinois’ 8th Congressional District, County Commissioner Nida Allam in North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, Melat Kiros in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York’s 13th Congressional District, State Rep. Justin J. Pearson in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, former Congresswoman Cori Bush in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, Angela Gonzales-Torres in California’s 34th Congressional District and State Rep. Donavan McKinney in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District.
Justice Democrats is leading the progressive movement in backing Congressional challenger campaigns, endorsing in more Congressional primaries than any organization on the left.
Each race is a part of the slate that Justice Democrats is building this cycle to expand their bloc in Congress and give Democrats a blueprint for how to build an actual opposition party that takes on corporate Super PACs, billionaire lobbies, AIPAC and Republican authoritarianism alike.
