Christian Democrats Challenge Trump's Faith Politics in 2026 Races
A wave of Christian clergy running for office as Democrats is reshaping the political landscape in 2026, and Iowa is at the center of this movement. Lutheran minister Sarah Trone Garriott is among the candidates challenging the notion that American Christianity belongs exclusively to the political right.
The contrast between Christian left and Christian right candidates comes down to one fundamental issue: the separation of church and state. While Christian nationalists in the MAGA movement increasingly reject that separation, Christian Democrats say they are fighting to protect it.
What is the difference between the Christian left and Christian right?
The Christian right, particularly its Christian nationalist wing, has moved toward imposing its version of Christian morality on the country. Recent polling from the Baylor Religion Survey found that 40 percent of Trump voters do not support church-state separation, and 84 percent believe the president should defend Christian values as part of his job.
Christian Democrats take a different approach. They emphasize serving the poor and protecting religious liberty for all faiths, including Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and atheists.
Iowa candidate Sarah Trone Garriott brings faith to the campaign trail
Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister running for U.S. House in Iowa, represents this growing movement of progressive clergy entering politics. She joins other Christian Democrats like Kansas Senate candidate Adam Hamilton, a Methodist megachurch pastor, and Texas candidate James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian.
These candidates say they are not trying to make the country more religious. Instead, they want to include religious people in the pro-democracy movement, according to Doug Pagitt, an evangelical pastor and founder of Vote Common Good.
Trump's Religious Liberty Commission pushes church-state integration
The debate intensified after Trump's second-term Religious Liberty Commission issued a report in June arguing for replacing the idea of separating church and state with building bridges between them. The commission was composed almost entirely of conservative Christians, according to the National Catholic Reporter.
Christian Democrats uniformly deplore this trend, saying it corrupts both church and state.
What do Christian Democrats believe about faith and politics?
Talarico made headlines with his viral interview on Jimmy Kimmel's show, which drew more than 11 million views on YouTube after being pulled from television over unspecified threats from the Trump administration.
For I was hungry and you cut my food assistance. I was sick and you kicked me off Medicaid. I was a stranger and you deported me and my family.
In an earlier interview with Stephen Colbert, Talarico defended the First Amendment's separation of church and state as sacred.
When the church gets too cozy with political power, it loses its prophetic voice, its ability to speak truth to power, its ability to imagine a completely different world. This separation between church and state is something we have to safeguard.
Could Christian Democrats change Iowa politics?
Political observers say this year's wave of Christian Democrats could make millions of like-minded faithful feel heard while prompting some Christian conservatives to rethink their politics and theology.
For Iowa voters, the emergence of clergy candidates on the Democratic side offers a new dynamic in a state where faith has long been associated with Republican politics. The question now is whether these candidates can persuade voters that their faith-based approach to governance deserves support.