Move over, evangelicals: Mainline Christians are the 2026 swing voter 

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Trending on The Hill - September 16, 2026

Trending on The Hill - September 16, 2026

For decades, election coverage has treated white evangelical Christians as the religious constituency that counts. With less than two months remaining till election day, another group deserves much closer attention: mainline Protestants. 

The signs are beginning to appear in some unlikely places. 

In Texas, state Rep. James Talarico (D), a Presbyterian seminarian, is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. In Kansas, Adam Hamilton (D), pastor of the largest United Methodist congregation in the country, is running for Senate in a state that has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century. 

They are not alone. Over a dozen pastors, seminarians and former clergy have run for federal office as Democrats this year, with several winning their party’s nomination. Their faith is not window dressing. They speak about loving our neighbors, human dignity, economic fairness, pluralism and the dangers of using political power to impose one version of Christianity on everyone else. 

The reaction from some conservatives has been revealing. Republican opponents have questioned whether several of these candidates are even real Christians or real pastors. One coined the term “Pastors in Name Only.”

If faith-forward Democratic candidates are so politically irrelevant, why work so hard to discredit their........

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