In today’s edition … The stunning rural shift toward Democrats … Reader thoughts on impeaching Trump … but first …
Democrats let Jesus take the wheel
A variety of factors led to Republicans’ undoing in the midterm elections, from rising costs to yet another conflict in the Middle East.
But some Democrats think something else boosted them in districts and states that have eluded them in recent decades: religion.
President Donald Trump was propelled to the White House twice thanks in large part to how completely he won support from white Christians. Over the last few years, Democratic leaders have tried to find a way to challenge the narrative that the party is hostile to peoples of faith.
For example, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) a pastor at Atlanta’s famed Ebenezer Baptist Church and a key figure in this effort, has called for Democrats of faith not to shy away from talking about its influence in their lives.
This year, two Senate candidates with hopes of flipping seats long held by the GOP — James Talarico and Adam Hamilton — took that advice to heart and made their Christian faith a prominent part of their winning campaigns.
Talarico, now a senator-elect in Texas, is a Presbyterian seminary graduate, and often spoke of “loving thy neighbor” on the campaign trail. Hamilton, the first Kansas Democrat to win a Senate seat in generations, is a Methodist minister with a megachurch who has spoken about trying to be Christ-like in his approach to government.
Several House candidates — like Iowa’s Sarah Trone Garriott and Texas’s Frederick Douglass Haynes III, both ministers — took a similar approach.
The effort seems to have paid off; religious Democrats won up and down the ballot. And an NORC voter survey suggests shifts toward Democrats this cycle; 4 percent of self-described born-again Christians who backed a GOP House candidate in 2022 supported a Democrat this time, for instance, while 6 percent of Catholics and 6 percent of Protestants who backed Trump in 2024 said they backed Democratic Senate candidates this time.
While pollsters and strategists will be digging through the data for some time to learn more about what prompted these developments, some Democrats are already celebrating their gains with Christians as proof of concept that incorporating faith into campaigns resonates with voters.
“I think the Talarico signs that said ‘love thy neighbor’ says it all,” said Chris Mann, a Democratic fundraiser who recently made a career change to become an Episcopalian seminarian. “The message of Christianity, which is to be kind to others, resonated with people.”
Christopher Hale, author of the popular Catholic news Substack Letters from Leo and a former Democratic House candidate, said there has been a marked shift in how Democrats approach religious Americans in the last two decades.
“One of my first jobs was running Catholic outreach for President Obama in the 2012 cycle. And religion was more or less marginalized within the Democratic Party,” Hale said. “The fact that I ran this at 23 years old shows you how little they valued the religious folks.”
Now, Hale says he is “completely surprised at how willing the party has been to engage people of faith,” which he argues is key to winning in red districts.
“The absolute openness to faith is something that is very new, I really thought the religious left was dead after 2024,” Hale said. “The success that we had I think will give the party confidence to really double down on that track.”
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From across the newsroom
- The GOP needs to move on from Trump. That’s easier said than done, from Peter Jamison.
- Judge halts Trump’s arch after federal panel approves it, from Dan Diamond.
- Republicans in North Carolina lose 4 more House seats as GOP wipeout spreads, from Praveena Somasundaram.
- Hegseth defends Iran war, assails critics as calls mount for his removal, from Dan Lamothe.
- Inside the investigative blitz coming for Trump’s corporate allies, from Pranshu Verma.
- Newsom moves to commute 548 death sentences, emptying California’s death row, from Kattie Mettler and Hannah Knowles.
What we’re watching
Democratic victories this year were not just in cities. As my colleagues Riley Beggin and Clara Ence Morse note in this smart piece, “Rural counties across the country swung more than 15 percentage points toward Democrats this year compared with 2024,” a stunning shift given rural voters have been a reliably deep-red voting bloc.
The epicenter of this shift may be Iowa, where Democrats won the governor’s mansion, a Senate seat and three House races.
Finding ways to appeal to rural voters “is a math problem, and I think that too many Democrats over the last decade have looked at this math problem incorrectly,” Democratic candidate and now Sen.-elect Josh Turek told The Washington Post last month.
It’s difficult to overstate how poorly Democrats have done with rural voters over the last ten years — and how limited their outreach has often been.
After Terry McAuliffe lost his bid for a second term as Virginia governor in 2021, a Democratic operative responded to my question about the campaign’s lack of real rural outreach by noting that McAuliffe went to Roanoke, the fourth-largest metro area in the commonwealth.
The question is whether this leftward shift sticks, or if it was a response to this economic moment, with high gas prices and tariff-related price shocks crushing rural economies.
Joe Maxwell, the former Democratic lieutenant governor of Missouri and a hog farmer, said Democrats can hold on to these new voters, if they take the right actions.
“They are winning an angry constituency, a constituency that is not necessarily voting for the Democrats. They are mad,” said Maxwell, adding that he thinks the party should take action against corporate power.
For so long, Democrats have thought rural outreach meant looking the part. You see it when people run for president and ever so slightly change how they dress when campaigning in rural America.
Maxwell laughs at that kind of signaling, recalling how his father “loved Bobby Kennedy” and traveled to hear him speak when he was running for president in 1968. “Thousands and thousands of farmers and rural folks showed up to see some city guy who talked funny in a suit,” Maxwell said.
His advice?
“You got to be authentic. You can’t make this up. Rural folks will see right through it.”
In your local paper
Missouri Independent: Republicans in Missouri lost 16 House seats and their legislative supermajority, putting pressure on the party that hasn’t been felt in years. “We’ve got to listen,” said one Republican state representative.
Maine Morning Star: The race to represent Maine’s 2nd Congressional District is headed to a ranked-choice vote. It’s a complex system — and somewhat new to Maine. Here is what to expect in one of the most competitive House races.
NC Newsline: Republicans in North Carolina’s legislature have shown before that they are willing to use lame duck periods to limit Democratic power. Could the same happen this year?
From you
We posed a simple question to you yesterday: Should Democrats try to impeach Trump next year?
Many of our Democratic readers said yes. But nearly all of you said you would prefer if the party did not go down that road.
“Impeachment cannot and should not be a priority for the Democrats at this time,” added Arlene Holmes. “It is more important that they focus on getting prices lowered so that people can put food on their tables, get adequate health insurance, end the war in Iran, etc. These should be their priorities right from the beginning.”
And Kim Rickert added, “I think it would be a waste of time and effort to impeach Donald Trump AGAIN. What came of the other impeachments? Nothing of consequence. Democrats need to develop a clear and concise path forward for leading the NATION.”
What is interesting about your comments is how pragmatic you want Democrats to be.
“While I’d get pleasure out of seeing Trump impeached, it would be a big waste of time,” wrote Ann Lutterman-Aguilar. “Democrats should focus on delivering on their promises for change. Otherwise, they will lose in the next elections when even more is at stake.”
“The Democrats should put bill after bill on Trump’s desk. Let him veto it. Let him get blamed for a government shutdown. Use this to campaign in 2028 as the reason why we need a Democratic president,” wrote Tom Burns, who said there should be “no impeachment,” but “some investigations.”
And some of our Trump-supporting readers disagreed with Trump being impeached at all.
“Get over it and face reality,” wrote Robert Coffey.
Send a reply
It’s been a heck of a week here at the Early Brief. So this weekend will be extra relaxing — Dan, for one, plans to go on a long bike ride to decompress. A more personal question today: What do you do to de-stress after a long day or week? Any tips for this community? Let us and your fellow Early Brief readers know at [email protected].
Thanks for reading. You can follow me on X at @merica.
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