Late Sunday afternoon, an exhausted-looking Hakeem S. Jeffries, his forehead shiny with sweat, walked into his fifth church of the day to make yet another plea for support in the Congressional primary on Tuesday.

Standing before the small congregation at the Brooklyn Community Church in Ocean Hill, Mr. Jeffries, a state assemblyman who is running for Congress in the Eighth District, reeled off the neighborhood’s ailments — unemployment, guns, poor public schools, lack of housing — and asked that the congregants “take a chance and send me down to Washington so I can stand up for our community.”

“In just a few days, we’ll have an opportunity together to help our community take a step toward the promised land of a better way of life,” Mr. Jeffries said, before a group of people from the church formed a prayer circle to wish him well in the race.