A Different Kind of ‘Values Voter’ Will Power the 2026 Midterms

Contributing Opinion writer

The “values voter” became a hot political commodity some two decades ago. A catchy rebranding of the religious right, the label was inspired by a controversial exit poll question in the 2004 presidential election finding that 22 percent of voters cast their ballots on the basis of “moral values,” and 80 percent of them supported George W. Bush. The assumption took hold that Americans who cared about “values” were conservatives animated by opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

The 2026 campaign is reminding us that this narrow view of how voters think about values is out of step with a long American tradition that gave rise to moral appeals for........

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