Dem
47
GOP
53
Wannabe U.S. Senator from Texas James Talarico may be onto something. A number of Protestant ministers are running for public office this year—as Democrats. It is not a flood, but Democrats are coming to realize that white Christians may be gettable with Bible-quoting candidates who actually understand Jesus' teachings and are on His side. Turns out He didn't spend his time railing about who should play on which high school soccer team—possibly because soccer wasn't going to be properly invented until 1863 (although mobs kicked skulls around earlier than that).
Case in point: Sarah Trone Garriott, who is running for Congress in IA-03, an R+2 district, against Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA). She is an ordained Lutheran pastor and state senator. She says: "Politics is just about how we live together, and so is faith."
Garriott isn't the only minister running for Congress in Iowa. Presbyterian minister Lindsay James is running in IA-02, the open district Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) is vacating to run for the Senate.
In the recent past, Democrats just ceded religious white voters to the Republicans, but if Talarico, Garriott, and James win (or even come very close), that could really change things. Some on the religious right are just right wingers who use religion as a cover, even though much of what they want violates everything Jesus preached about. They don't care because for them, politics trumps religion. But that is not everyone. Remember, most white evangelicals avoided politics like the plague until Jerry Falwell launched the Moral Majority in 1979. As late as 1976, half of all evangelicals voted for one of their own in Jimmy Carter.
There are two ordained ministers in the Senate: Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Baptist minister James Lankford (R-OK). Warnock likes to say: "You can't pray with your neighbor and then prey on your neighbor." There are three ordained ministers in the House: Methodist minister Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Baptist pastor Mark Harris (R-NC), and Protestant pastor Tim Walberg (R-MI). (V)