DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) 鈥� In polite company or otherwise, the Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott is very comfortable talking to people about religion and politics.
She delivered an impassioned sermon last Sunday encouraging the people in the pews at Grace Lutheran Church to welcome strangers as Jesus did. The day before, she campaigned for Congress in rural Iowa, decrying Medicaid cuts and their impact on people鈥檚 access to health care.
The Lutheran pastor and state senator is one of three clergy members in Iowa running as Democrats for the U.S. House of Representatives.
After years of white Christians overwhelmingly supporting Republican a striking number of clergy are currently running for political office as Democrats. While a 36-year-old Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminarian who recently won his Texas primary for U.S. Senate, has gained national attention, he’s hardly the only progressive candidate with a theological education this midterm season.
鈥淏ecause there鈥檚 been the tendency to define Christianity as and with a lens, I think you are seeing people on the Democratic side saying, 鈥榃ait a minute. There are different ways to think about how our faith informs our policy,鈥�” said Melissa Deckman, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute.
Democrats’ next challenge is to figure out how to talk about faith for the long haul in a party that’s more religiously diverse than Republicans and has a greater number of voters who aren’t religious at all.
Talking about religion
Trone Garriott, ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has done extensive interfaith work, something she says has made her a better Lutheran. It鈥檚 also informed how she campaigns, sliding seamlessly into a Friday night Lenten fish fry at a Catholic church then going straight to an Iftar dinner at a mosque down the road.
Despite high-profile politicians including former President Joe Biden, a lifelong Catholic Democrat, being candid about their faith, Trone Garriott thinks part of the reason many Democrats have failed to engage certain religious groups is a discomfort in talking meaningfully about it.
鈥淎 lot of folks just don鈥檛 have the practice to do it in a way that doesn鈥檛 feel like it鈥檚 imposing oneself on others or being dismissive of other perspectives,鈥� she said. 鈥淔olks tend to fall back into this, 鈥榃ell, everyone鈥檚 basically the same.鈥� We鈥檙e different and those differences are important.鈥�
But Trone Garriott senses Democrats are now seeing that glossing over religious differences isn鈥檛 the answer. 鈥淭hat left a vacuum that the religious right has filled. And there are a lot of people now realizing that it is really important to speak about these issues from the perspective of faith and claim their faith,” she said.
Talarico, a Texas state representative who reaped national attention last summer after appearing on podcast, has done just that.
鈥淚f we have to force people to put up a poster, to me that means that we have a dead religion,鈥� he said of his opposition to a Texas bill requiring that public schools display the Ten Commandments.
Deckman argues what makes Talarico unique among white Democrats is his comfort in talking about the Bible. But it’s also made him a target for conservatives, particularly his theological rationale for supporting abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights.
鈥淗e would be one that I would say, 鈥榃ait a minute. You are misrepresenting the word of God,鈥欌�� said the politically influential president and CEO of the conservative Christian group The Family Leader. 鈥淭he GOP has been vastly more consistent in their proximity to God鈥檚 word, versus using a verse here and there to try to back up a position.鈥�
Religious voters at the polls
In the 2024 election, Trump won the support of about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters, while the same percentage of Black Protestant voters went for Democrat Kamala Harris. About 7 in 10 nonreligious voters supported Harris.
Democratic Kentucky Gov. said he attributes that lack of support from certain religious voters to messaging within the party.
鈥淲e stopped talking about our why,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen that happens, I think you lose your authenticity. And sometimes that means that people stop believing that you are going to work as hard as you鈥檙e committed to doing.鈥�
Amid speculation he will run for president in 2028, Beshear, a deacon for his Disciples of Christ church, hopes to communicate his motivations with his forthcoming book, 鈥淕o and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country,鈥� a reference to the Bible’s Parable of the Good Samaritan.
鈥淢y faith is is my authentic why. It鈥檚 what drives me to try to better this world,” he said.
For some, the overwhelming support for Trump among white Christians has caused them to look inward. 鈥淚 put that on us as pastors, that maybe we haven鈥檛 done a great job of explaining the faith to people,鈥� said Clint Twedt-Ball, a minister running for Congress in Iowa鈥檚 2nd Congressional District.
From pews to halls of power
Black clergy running as Democrats is not new. U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., is a Baptist senior pastor and the late Rev. Jesse Jackson was a two-time presidential candidate. There are fewer examples of white clergy doing the same, despite the obvious skills, like preaching, that translate to campaigning.
Both Twedt-Ball, a third-generation United Methodist pastor and founder of the nonprofit Matthew 25, and Lindsay James, a PCUSA chaplain who is also running in Iowa鈥檚 2nd district, said the 2016 election was a catalyst for their political involvement.
The rise of pastors in politics extends beyond congressional races.
Rae Huang, also a PCUSA minister and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is challenging Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Huang said her candor about being a pastor has sparked questions from voters.
“‘Are you somebody who is homophobic? Are you somebody who is gonna try and create a theocracy in our city?’ Because that鈥檚 all they鈥檝e known,” she recalled. She sees an opportunity to give voters a positive vision of her theology. “Religion doesn鈥檛 have to be that space of oppression, that space where we have been suppressing voices rather than uplifting and liberating.鈥�
Finding hope through faith
After he was elected New York City鈥檚 first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani appeared on comedian Trevor Noah鈥檚 podcast and argued the importance in politics of having the imagination for change 鈥� a theme Noah linked to religion.
鈥淩eligion is declining, but it鈥檚 declining in areas where people are particularly left-leaning or progressive,鈥� Noah said. 鈥淥ne of the things that faith requires of you is the ability to believe that this current state that you鈥檙e in is not the end 鈥� there is a possibility that something can be greater.鈥�
Mamdani, who is not clergy but is vocal about his faith, agreed. 鈥淚t鈥檚 often in houses of worship where New Yorkers still have that trust,” he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 by and large lost when it comes to politics.鈥�
Huang, who the speculated could be 鈥淟.A.’s Mamdani,鈥� echoed this sentiment.
鈥淲e鈥檙e called and being invited to be prophetic, to be forward thinking, to actually grow our imagination,” she said. 鈥淭he religious right has a hold over American culture. I think that鈥檚 changing. I think progressive Christianity is beginning to stand up.”
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