Republican congressional candidate Everett Jackson led a small protest outside Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas on Sunday, arguing that the church should not serve as a polling location while its senior pastor, Democratic opponent Frederick Douglass Haynes III, runs for Congress.
Dallas County’s current early voting and Election Day lists include the church’s banquet hall foyer at 2020 W. Wheatland Road. Jackson and Haynes are competing for Texas’ 30th Congressional District seat, which U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) currently holds.
Jackson called the arrangement “a very obvious, a very obvious conflict of interest” during an interview with The Dallas Express at the October 11 protest.
“How can you be on the ballot and the church that you reside over is a polling site with your name on that ballot, ladies and gentlemen? I smell a rat. I smell a rat, and we have reached out to the Dallas Elections Board and whatnot, and we have got no resolution,” he continued.
Jackson urged election officials to stop using the church as a polling location while Haynes seeks federal office.
“You’re either going to be on the poll, or you’re going to be behind the pulpit. You cannot have both, but we cannot have his church as a polling location while he’s on the ballot,” Jackson said.
DALLAS, TEXAS
— Carlos Turcios (@Carlos__Turcios) October 12, 2026
The Dallas County Republican Party previously urged the county to remove Friendship-West as an Election Day voting site, citing an apparent conflict of interest, The Dallas Express reported in September.
In that report, Dallas GOP Chairman Monty Montañez said the party initially received word that county election officials, the district attorney and the Texas secretary of state had reviewed the arrangement during the primary and found no violation.
Montañez also said the secretary of state later reopened its review. DX had not independently confirmed that renewed review when it published the September report. The earlier story documented requests for comment to county and state election officials, the church and Haynes’ campaign.
Jackson and other protesters also criticized the church’s political activism and its previous display of a large Black Lives Matter flag. DX documented the flag’s display in its earlier coverage.
Jayla Godbolt, who identified herself as a Republican write-in candidate for justice of the peace, joined the protest. The Dallas County Republican Party lists her as a write-in candidate for justice of the peace, Precinct 1, Place 2.
“We were out here today protesting this blasphemous church of Friendship West,” Godbolt told DX.
Haynes has led Friendship-West since 1983, according to the church’s biography. Early voting runs October 19-30 ahead of the November 3 general election.
Provided by Dallas Express
