Michael Wear is the president of the Center for Christianity and Public Life.
For years, a “Godgap” has separated the two parties. Republicans have relied on religious voters, and Democrats have drawn disproportionately from Americans who claim no faith. In recent decades, this has become a defining feature of American politics, reflected in voters’ belief that Republicans are friendly toward religion and Democrats are not.
But the midterm elections of vocally Christian Democratic candidates in states such as Texas, Iowa and Kansas provide a glimpse of a different kind of politics. For too long, Democrats tended to write off religious voters, and Republicans took them for granted. Faith was treated as an element of partisan identity rather than something capable of inspiring and challenging leaders of both parties. That has changed.
For years, President Donald Trump insisted that Republicans were not only the best option for religious voters but the only option. In effect, he told Christians to vote for Republicans even if the party ignores Christian priorities. Where else could they go? Trump said that the left wants to “shame Christians” and “stamp out the churches.”
Too often, Democratic strategists and candidates accepted Republicans’ claim on religion. Instead of seeking common ground with religious voters, they would presume disagreement. With some major exceptions (including former president Barack Obama, whose administration I served in), Democratic candidates and strategists treated the God gap as an inevitable feature of American politics.
In these midterms, however, the God gap was bridged by the many Democratic candidates — such as James Talarico, Adam Hamilton, Sarah Trone Garriott and LaKesha Womack — who spoke openly about their faith. The opening for these kinds of voices became clear shortly after Trump’s 2025 inauguration when the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, asked Trump to “have mercy” during a ceremony at Washington National Cathedral. Most Democrats seemed at a loss, unsure of where to stand after such a devastating electoral defeat. But Budde spoke clearly. She showed how higher commitments, commitments that do not derive from party platforms or polling, can provide Democrats a place to stand in times of uncertainty.
But this year’s success risks being a one-off unless the Democratic Party takes its lessons to heart. When Talarico talks about “loving thy neighbor,” it’s not just rhetoric that might appeal to swing voters. It speaks as well to longtime Democrats. The majority of Democrats believe in God. The majority of Democrats are Christians. Religious voters are not some distant constituency, and faith has never been superfluous to the Democratic Party. Too often, Democratic strategists forget that candidates who respect faith — who believe faith can and does make a positive difference in the United States — can inspire committed Democrats and bring new voters into the party.
To build on the success of these midterms, Democrats must resist the temptation to view faith as nothing more than a politically convenient way to attack Republicans. Some partisan Democrats seem to enjoy when Republicans are criticized using Christian terms: Yes, use their own stuff against them!
This is, frankly, how some partisan Democrats have justified the religious rhetoric of candidates like Talarico and Hamilton, as well as Democrats already in office, such as Sen. Raphael Warnock (Georgia). But this reinforces the false idea that Christianity is Republican territory, a standard they must be held to but others can ignore.
In this cycle, Democratic candidates embraced faith as a source of conviction and motivation rather than using it as a mere political cudgel. They listened to voters who disagreed with them, they movingly explained where they felt tensions in their own positions, and they made clear that they had deeper commitments than the Democratic Party platform.
Religion never left American politics. It has always been there, and it will continue to so long as the U.S. has a democracy filled with religious people. Democrats seem to have realized that religion doesn’t have to be conceded to the Republican Party. Now the Democrats who drew on their faith while campaigning must do the same in government. What does a politics of love look like in the midst of expected Senate investigations of the Trump administration? What does not treating politics like a blood sport mean when you just need one more vote to override a filibuster? What does a preferential option for the poor entail when you’re not just giving a stump speech but holding a gavel in your hand?
If Democrats can learn again to appreciate religious contributions to their party and to our politics, they can begin to close the God gap. Faith could cease to be a badge of partisan belonging, and religious polarization would no longer risk turning one half of the political spectrum against belief. These midterms might just remake the role of religion in American politics, with good effects for faith and public life.
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