NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is ramping up its courtship of Catholic voters ahead of a likely November matchup against a devout Catholic Democrat, former Vice President Joe Biden.

The campaign previewed its message at a Thursday night launch of a “Catholics for Trump” coalition, touting the president’s religious freedom record and anti-abortion policies. In a sign of how significantly the coronavirus has upended the presidential race, the event also featured Trump backers promoting his response to the pandemic – with one describing it as aligned with Catholic teaching about solidarity.

Ahead of a general election where Catholics could prove to be vital swing voters, particularly in the Midwest, the coalition launch indicates that Trump doesn’t plan to limit his faith-based outreach to evangelicals who have long been a key part of his base. But Biden, who’s frequently invoked his faith on the Democratic primary trail, could bring a unique advantage with Catholic voters to this fall’s contest.

At the heart of the competition for Catholic votes in November is the question of how many in the faith view abortion as the primary driver of their political engagement. Pope Francis has urged Trump to adopt an immigration stance consistent with his “pro-life” identity, and progressive Catholics have decried Trump’s approach to issues from health care to climate change as inconsistent with their church’s teachings.

Trump’s campaign, however, billed his embrace of anti-abortion policies prominently in their materials on its Catholic outreach kickoff. The event featured Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, a staunch anti-abortion advocate who displayed an aborted fetus in a 2016 online video that discussed his support for Trump.

Pavone said in an interview that while Trump is “trying to protect the right to life,” the president is acting on other issues in ways “completely consistent with Catholic teaching.”

“He’s protecting our people by strengthening borders, not to stop immigration but to stop crime, to protect families, to protect neighborhoods,” Pavone said.

Also joining the Thursday kickoff were Mercedes Schlapp, a senior communications adviser to the campaign, and husband Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and a co-chair of the new Catholic outreach effort.

Mercedes Schlapp, a former White House communications adviser, described Biden as “an extremist” on abortion during the event. Republicans saw an opening to peel off Biden’s Catholic support last year when the former vice president, who often talks about his Catholic school upbringing, ended his decades-long support for limiting federal funding of abortion.

The campaign is poised to get outside help in its work to turn out churchgoing Catholic voters from the nonprofit CatholicVote.org, which is investing in mobilizing that bloc with a pro-Trump message.