A growing number of white Democratic congressional candidates are leaning on their clerical credentials to court Christian voters, but a closer look at their records reveals positions that conflict sharply with biblical teaching on life, marriage, and family. As the 2026 midterms approach, five clergy members and seminarians running under the Democratic banner are testing whether faith-infused language can bridge the gap between progressive policy and traditional Christian conviction.

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The strategy faces a steep climb. A May 2026 poll by Change Research found that only 25 percent of religious voters view the Democratic Party as friendly toward Christians, compared to 70 percent who said the same of Republicans.

From the Daily Caller:

Sarah Trone Garriott, James Talarico, Robb Ryerse, Anna Golladay, and Lindsay James are attempting to blend the language of “faith, freedom, and family” Christians with the increasingly progressive policies of the modern left.

White clergy members running for Congress as Democrats are a rarity. Since the 1970s, only three have been elected to the federal legislature, while numerous Republican clergy members have served in Congress. Currently, two Democrat members of Congress are clergy: Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and Missouri Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, both of whom are Black.

Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister and current Iowa state senator challenging Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, said that the “Faith perspective” in politics does not reflect her values and the scriptures as she understands them, according to Religion News Service.

Garriott has criticized what she called “white patriarchy” at a United Methodist Church conference and described abortion as a fundamental right, dismissing those who support a six-week limit as a “small group of extreme, anti-choice Republican politicians.” She has also reportedly acknowledged that her identity shifts between her roles as a senator and a reverend, saying it “gets kind of mushy and kind of confusing” depending on “who’s paying me.” Seminarian James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas, has publicly described himself as a “Christian who hates Christianity” and claimed that God is non-binary, using the story of Mary’s virgin birth to argue for abortion access. He has also criticized efforts to display the Ten Commandments in Texas public schools, calling such moves “Christofascism.”

Arkansas Democratic nominee Robb Ryerse spent more than a decade as a pastor before founding a church affirming LGBT lifestyles and later became political organizer for Vote Common Good, a group aimed at pulling evangelicals away from the Republican Party. Tennessee nominee Anna Golladay was dismissed from her associate pastor role in 2019 after officiating a same-sex wedding, and her campaign platform includes gender-affirming health care, full abortion access, and decriminalizing illegal immigration. Iowa state representative and ordained Presbyterian pastor Lindsay James, running for an open congressional seat, previously published a campaign “confession” acknowledging her privilege as a “white, cis-gender, able-bodied, middle class, college educated woman” and cited her ordination to argue that women are “morally capable” of making their own reproductive decisions following the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade.

For Christians evaluating these candidates, the tension is not simply political but theological. The use of clerical titles and scriptural language to advance positions that contradict Christian teaching on life, marriage, and human dignity raises serious questions about what these candidates actually believe and who they represent. Scripture does not bend to fit political platforms, and believers are wise to evaluate candidates not by the credentials they hold but by the fruit their records produce. Pray for wisdom and discernment for Christian voters heading into the midterms, that they would weigh candidates carefully against the full counsel of God’s word rather than the selective use of religious language.

How are you praying for this issue? Share your scriptures and prayers in the comments below.

(Excerpt from the Daily Caller. Photo Credit: Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images).