How the pastor of a small Broward church became a big voice in far-right politics
He doesn’t have a Sunday morning TV show, isn’t a household name in the world of evangelical Christianity and you aren’t likely to hear his sermons on mainstream Christian broadcasts.
But Mario Bramnick, who leads a congregation of about 300 people in Cooper City called New Wine Ministries, is well-known in important Republican Party circles and an influential evangelical voice aligned with the controversial political movement known as Christian nationalism.
Over the past several years, Bramnick has had the ear of powerful politicians including former president Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. In Florida, he’s on the Faith and Community Advisory Council, a board of 25 members appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. He was among evangelical delegations that met in Jerusalem in March and Washington in July with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has boasted about his access to the important leaders.
It’s the pastor’s steadfast support of Trump that has really elevated his profile and influence. In the wake of the 2020 election, he hosted a series of global prayer calls — attended by right-wing politicians and like-minded believers — in support of Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. In 2023, as a key evangelical advisor to the former president, he prayed over Trump outside the ventanita at Versailles Cafe in Miami.
Bramnick is a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement that aims to shape every pillar of American society to reflect far-right religious beliefs and echoes the goals of Christian nationalists. While many conservative politicians embrace evangelical support, most tend to diplomatically distance themselves from extreme positions that some religious scholars consider a danger to democracy as well as more mainstream Christian groups.
“The main goal of the New Apostolic Reformation is to enhance their own political power and impose their extreme, dangerous and often bizarre beliefs on all Americans,” said Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of advocacy group Interfaith Alliance, in a statement to the Miami Herald. “... they aim to radically transform society in a way that would marginalize and oppress all those who don’t share their beliefs — including Jews, Muslims, and the overwhelming majority of Christians.”
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, religious scholar and senior director of policy and advocacy at Interfaith Alliance, stresses the distinction between many evangelicals and “far-right extremist groups” like NAR that have “contributed to democratic backsliding in the United States and people not wanting to associate with religion.”
Bramnick is a self-proclaimed “Apostle” — or someone who believes they can communicate directly with God — within the NAR. Sometimes referred to as independent charismatic Christians by academics, the group is a rapidly-growing grassroots network of conservative Christian activists who are often not associated with any denomination. They believe in prophecies related to politics, including the notion that Trump is a candidate chosen by God who was supposed to win the 2020 election.
Bramnick, along with other Florida NAR leaders like Tampa Pastor Paula White-Cain, who served as a special adviser to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative in the Trump administration, and Miami Pastor Guillermo Maldonado, have advocated for Christians to take over key positions of influence with the goal of creating a Christian nation. Some scholars and critics believe they helped fuel religious rage that contributed to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn the election of President Joe Biden.
“This little-known but potent network of Christian leaders built the theology of Christian Trumpism and then inspired thousands of Christians to show up on January 6 to fight for Donald Trump,” writes author and religious scholar Matthew D. Taylor in his new book, “The Violent Take it By Force.”
A spiritual battle
At a recent Sunday morning sermon streamed on YouTube, Bramnick took the stage at his intimate church in Cooper City to preach to his followers. A compact man with a polite demeanor, he painted a picture of spiritual battle against worldly evil with fire and brimstone, us-against-them rhetoric also favored by Trump.
“We are assessing the situation and the enemy is strong, the enemy is relentless, the enemy is shouting ‘I will defeat you,’” Bramnick said.
“God is saying we will win, because I won,” Bramnick continued. “No matter what the opposition is planning, I have been faithful all along. America shall be restored again.”
Independent charismatics believe that some of their leaders — who they refer to as modern-day Prophets or Apostles, a title that Bramnick uses — can engage in miraculous healings. It’s not uncommon to find such pastors speaking in tongues, similar to some Pentecostal practices — and see congregants crying, laughing, fainting or engaging in other ecstatic forms of worship.
Mobilizing Christians for Trump
Bramnick is just one of many charismatic Christians who have emerged as some of Trump’s most ardent religious supporters and an important part of his seemingly unshakable base of voters.
Through events that blend religious and political activism such as the ReAwaken America Tour, The Courage Tour and national prayer conference calls, NAR leaders are on the front lines of mobilizing churches across the nation to support Trump and his platforms.
Bramnick’s congregation, New Wine, for example, hosted an event earlier this week called “Shift Broward” which was advertised as a “South Florida Prayer Intercessory Meeting” that touted planned attendance by government leaders, candidates and pastors. The founder and executive director of right-wing advocacy group Christian Family Coalition, Anthony Verdugo, was also scheduled to show up according to the event flyer.
Intercessory prayer is a type that asks God to intervene in the lives of others, but in the context of politics, it’s more about God intervening in the election, said religious scholar Graves-Fitzsimmons. “There’s this anti-democratic element, that is, no matter how the people vote, they’re calling for God to intervene on their side. So it goes beyond faith based advocacy and talking about values, and really gets into something that is theocratic.”
Under tax laws, nonprofits such as churches and charities are not supposed to openly endorse partisan candidate races like congressional seats but they are legally allowed to lobby for campaigns on certain issues or ballot questions that align with their mission.
On the night of the Shift Broward event, the lobby of New Wine was filled with posters encouraging people to “Vote No on 4,” in reference to Florida’s ballot question on abortion. An “Appeal to Heaven” banner — a symbol that’s been associated in recent years with the Christian Nationalist movement — hung over the stage.
Initially, leaders of the church told a Miami Herald reporter that the event was open to the public, but later turned the reporter away at the church, saying it was a “private event, closed to the media.” New Wine also did not respond to the Miami Herald’s multiple phone and email requests over several weeks for an interview with Bramnick.
There appears to be little separation between church and politics for the group. Earlier this year, Bramnick joined The Courage Tour, a religious roadshow led by influential NAR leader Apostle Lance Wallnau, that visits swing states and encourages its attendees to sign up to be election workers and poll watchers. It’s advertised as the nation’s “Third Great Awakening.”
Religious scholar Taylor, in an interview with CBS News described the overtly political event as “the most targeted and tactical voter mobilization effort done by Christian nationalists ever.”
The event, according to those who attended and recorded sessions, continues to pitch the discredited conspiracy theory that Trump actually won the last election.
“January 6th was not an insurrection. It was an election fraud intervention,” Wallnau told attendees at the Courage Tour in Wisconsin.
The ‘Seven Mountain Mandate’
Wallnau is a mentor of Bramnick and a staunch advocate of the so-called “Seven Mountain Mandate,” which calls on Christians to conquer and control seven critical arenas — government, family, religion, arts and entertainment, media, education and business. He’s got millions of followers online, many who regard him as prophet.
At the tour’s stop in Phoenix, Bramnick told crowds: “It’s time to join General Lance Wallnau in this great army to take back America!”
Bramnick’s involvement in the political scene dates back to around 2016.
After hearing Wallnau speak about the Seven Mountain Mandate, Bramnick said during an interview on Wallnau’s podcast “The Lance Wallnau Show” in 2022, that he felt called to get more involved in political spaces. He said he began reaching out to his fellow pastors in South Florida and organizing meetings with influential Israeli leaders.
Bramnick, in the interview, said he couldn’t reveal his real purpose for wanting to meet with the Israeli leaders — which has to do with end times theories — so he had his assistant put together a false agenda within five minutes. Bramnick has no background in government or foreign policy, which Wallnau acknowledged.
“Without any background in government, a pastor just says yes,” Wallnau said during the podcast interview.
Bramnick claims to have met with heads of state in 10 different nations. He eventually joined the National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump in 2016 and an advisory board called Latinos for Trump. Bramnick said he worked on the GOP platform for Israel with Jason Greenblatt, a top Israel advisor during the Trump administration.
“More and more I find myself in places that I have no business being in, other than I’m the one coordinating the meetings,” Bramnick said on Wallnau’s podcast. “You don’t need to know before you go, you just need to know it’s a supernatural door.”
In 2017, Bramnick, a Cuban-American, started the nonprofit, Latino Coalition for Israel, an organization with a primary purpose of “spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ .... in Israel through evangelizing using written and spoken word through any media available,” according to tax documents.
The affinity for Israel has connections to end-times theories. Many evangelicals believe that the restoration of a Jewish state in Israel will hasten the return of Christ, mirroring what Christians believe in the Old Testament. To simplify very complex beliefs, some evangelical Christians — even the ones who are the most pro-Israel — also have a larger goal of converting Jews to Christianity.
Religious scholar Taylor said evangelical support is a strong factor in shaping American political support for Israel.
“It’s not the Jewish community that is driving American politicians to support Israel ... You have so many Christians who are supporting Israel for theological reasons. And they’re channeling money into it, they’re lobbying for it.”
That explains how the pastor of a small Broward church and other evangelicals can “get face time with Netanyahu,” Taylor said. “These are often very obscure figures within American politics. I mean, who knows who Mario Bramnick is? But he goes to Israel and he’s a celebrity.”
Organizing election deniers
Though most of his political work went on behind the scenes, Bramnick’s brush of mainstream media attention came when he was photographed praying over Trump in Miami. The former president made a detour stop at the famed Miami Cuban restaurant and bakery, Versailles, in 2023 on the day of his arraignment in Miami federal court on charges of refusing to return classified documents.
During Trump’s presidency, Bramnick was a part of a network of other apostles, prophets and Christian nationalists who organized monthly round table discussions with Trump during his presidency.
“When there’s an issue or a crisis, the president calls in to the prophets to hear what God has to say — and he’s not even a believer,” Bramnick said during the podcast interview with Wallnau.
For believers within the NAR, Trump is the “Cyrus anointed” candidate — a supposed underdog with no formal Christian belief system that God has chosen to lead the American masses to victory. It’s based on the group’s interpretation of Old Testament scripture that compares Trump to the Persian emperor, Cyrus, a non-Christian who conquered Babylon, ultimately leading the Jewish people out of exile to freedom. In their modern version, the Jews represent the conservative Christians and Trump is the political king guiding them out of cultural exile.
Wallnau is credited with being one of the first evangelical leaders to openly endorse Trump, opening doors for evangelicals to endorse other leaders who aren’t conventionally seen as “religious,” like Trump or former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro.
Locally, Bramnick is also one of 25 Florida leaders on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Faith and Community Advisory Council. The group is a part of an initiative the DeSantis administration started to open “healthy lines of communication between Florida faith and community organizations and state government,” according to its website.
Bramnick said, on the same podcast interview with Wallnau, that he sees this role as another way for Christians to answer the call of God by influencing lawmakers. So far, he said, it’s working,
“Governor DeSantis is a great man, he’s a Catholic. I don’t know whether he’s received the Lord or not but it’s deja vu with what happened in the White House,” Bramnick said during the podcast. “Almost everything he touches is a Cyrus movement. He’s got Christians all around him.“
After President Biden won the 2020 election, Bramnick, along with another NAR leader Jim Garlow, organized a series of calls, “Global Prayer for Election Integrity,” where like-minded Christians gathered — sometimes along with White House advisors — to pray and advocate for the election to be overturned.
Taylor explains that these events were instrumental in rallying election deniers ahead of January 6th.
“This is not merely ‘oh we’re a pious group of religious leaders who are gathering to pray.’ They were strategy sessions,” Taylor told the Herald. “You had Steve Bannon briefing them … they were pretty far into these fights leading up to Jan. 6 and talking strategy with evangelical Trump advisors.”
In an open letter to Donald Trump, the faith leaders boasted that over 1.1 million people had either joined or viewed the event recordings over the span of eighteen sessions. The calls are still happening today under a different name.
“We remain convinced that God’s ordained assignment remains unfinished,” the statement posted to Facebook read. “We believe you have won the election. Most thinking, honest, intelligent Americans know it to be true. We believe God’s will is for you to serve for a second term … God always wins.”
This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
This story was originally published September 28, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
