Washington (United States) (AFP) – Wins by a string of openly religious Democratic candidates in last week's midterm elections have broken the Republican stranglehold on integrating faith and politics, a change that could reshape America's political landscape for years to come.

Issued on: 13/11/2026 - 03:21

For decades, Democratic Party candidates have been reluctant to talk about faith and done little to actively reach out to religious voters, who favored Republicans, viewed as the party of traditional family values.

But this year, that pattern was shattered as Methodist megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton in Kansas and Presbyterian seminarian James Talarico in Texas won in deeply conservative states that hadn't elected a Democratic senator in decades.

Using the Bible to call for decency in politics and oppose the violent crackdown on undocumented immigrants, they were among six clergy or pastors-in-training winning seats as Democrats, helping them recapture Congress and deal a heavy blow to President Donald Trump's party.

In Michigan, voters provided another kind of religious breakthrough by electing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed as the first Muslim senator.

"Democrats have long been the party of policies and programs rather than faith and values," but they "finally cracked the code," said Andrew Koneschusky, head of public relations firm Beltway Advisors in Washington and a former Democratic aide.

Voters resonated with messaging like Talarico's "politics of love" at a time of increased polarization and revulsion at heavyhanded immigration-enforcement tactics.

Talarico declared that the "real fight" in America isn't left vs right, but top vs bottom. He regularly wove scripture into speeches, saying he followed a "barefoot rabbi" who taught that the two most important things in life were loving God and loving your neighbor.

That struck a chord with voters. "'Love thy neighbor' is the opposite of ripping families apart, calling immigrants animals and demonizing trans people," Koneschusky said.

'Expanding the map'

The shift to embrace religious candidates is "really positive development" that could make Democrats more competitive in conservative areas in the South and Midwest, he added.

While this new playbook shouldn't be a blueprint for every state, the results show that "when Democrats run the right candidates who can talk credibly about faith and values in those areas where that's important to voters, they can be quite competitive," Koneschusky said.

"It's going to put Republicans on the defensive in places where they're not used to being on the defensive."

Their victories have generated an internet meme depicting Talarico, Hamilton and others as "The Rise of the Matthew 25 Democrats," a reference to a Bible passage where Jesus calls his disciples to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and welcome the immigrant.

Conservative evangelical Christians remained suspicious of the candidates' more liberal stances on abortion and gay marriage.

One evangelical influencer, Beth Allie Stuckey, called Talarico a "heretic" leading people to hell.

'Loosen the stranglehold'

But left-leaning Christian leaders welcomed the results as a healthy push-back.

"This will loosen the stranglehold that the Religious Right and Christian nationalist movement have had on our politics," said Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, a progressive Christian organization.

"It will help change the perception of Democrats and kind of level the playing field."

Hamilton, a political newcomer in deeply conservative Kansas, emphasized on the campaign trail that he was a moderate Democrat who wanted fiscal responsibility and a strong military while also supporting safe and legal access to abortions and protections for LGBTQ people.

Hamilton has said he is deeply aware of the "moral tension" surrounding abortion. He has told a poignant story about how his mother became pregnant with him at age 17, considered getting an abortion, but then decided against it.

At the same time, as pastor of a 24,000-strong church, Hamilton has also supported women facing pregnancy-related crises, and said he wants "to make sure Kansas legislators are not making that decision for those women."

But once in power, the Democrats will now find themselves under pressure to deliver results on earthly matters, especially affordability.

"If we don’t figure that out and get to work on helping people, this is going to be a one-and-done kind of blue wave," Hamilton said over the weekend.

© 2026 AFP

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