But as he ordered the beef and broccoli with fried rice, he expressed surprise that the California primary falls on the last day of the tour. “People think I follow politics,” he said. “I don’t.”

Instead, he describes himself as a modern day Paul Revere. “The church just has to be wakened,” he said. “People say, what goes in California is the way the rest of the nation is going to go. So, if we want to see changes, it is going to have to be done here.”

“All of California is like a university town now,” he went on. Referring to the state’s leader, Jerry Brown, he said: “But you are beginning to see a groundswell of revolt out here. Orange County, San Diego County, are beginning to take on Governor Brown. It’s good for Christians to capitalize on that. So yah, we could help turn the tide.”

For a preacher who has earned a reputation for his unapologetic condemnation of everything he sees as sin and for his outspoken defense of President Trump, Mr. Graham’s voice is surprisingly soft in person, almost sweet. His words are not. “The gays and lesbians have their people run for politics and win,” he said. “Christians, we are just being stupid.”

Though Mr. Graham insists his hope lies only in Jesus, and not in Republicans or Democrats, his vision often dovetails more closely to Republican policy priorities. In California, one clear goal is to change the makeup of school boards. “Can you imagine if your school boards were controlled by evangelical Christians?” he asked the pastors in Pasadena, a not so subtle reference to conservative religious protests of California’s new sex education curriculum, which includes lessons on LGBTQ sexuality.