Three progressive Democrats running for the U.S. Senate this cycle are leaning on Christianity and religious rhetoric to defend their left-wing platforms, comparing their own political positions to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Texas state Rep. James Talarico are all mounting insurgent campaigns against establishment-backed rivals this midterm cycle. Each has folded faith directly into their political messaging as Republicans label their agendas extreme.
Nixon, who pulled off an upset primary win over Alexander Vindman, a figure from President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial who had establishment backing, will face Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., in November. She has drawn Republican fire over her ties to the Democratic Socialists of America, which she joined in June, even as she denies being a Democratic socialist.
Speaking at Saint Paul AME Church of Jacksonville, Fla., last week, Nixon told the congregation her critics are trying to paint her as an extremist.
“They are trying, y’all. They are trying … to label me as this extremist, this radical. But, you know, Jesus was a radical,” Nixon said. “And Jesus fought for — I mean, he pushed for the same things that I’m fighting for today, right? Right now, we’re literally in a civil rights moment. Whether or not people wanna believe it or not, but we are.”
El-Sayed, who is Muslim and is challenging former Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan’s toss-up Senate race, made a nearly identical comparison in May on the Progressive Christians Podcast when asked why his positions and his faith are both branded radical.
“Well, you know, Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him, was considered radical in his time, too,” El-Sayed said. “And there is a radical nature to being willing to stand forthright in a time of corruption, and I think it’s important for all of us to realize that popularity and zeitgeist don’t make truth. And we live in a time where people are trying to normalize corruption.”
Talarico, running against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has gone furthest in blending faith with politics, taking seminary classes to become a Presbyterian minister since launching his campaign last year. He invoked scripture in 2021 while opposing a Texas GOP bill targeting transgender children, arguing Republicans were misusing religion to justify the measure “in the name of God’s law.”
“The first two lines of the Bible, the first two lines in Genesis, use two different Hebrew words to describe God. One is the masculine Hebrew noun for divinity,” Talarico said. “The second is the feminine Hebrew noun for spirit. God is both masculine and feminine, and everything in between.”
The strategy mirrors tactics Republicans themselves used decades ago, when the “Moral Majority” coalition emerged in the late 1970s tying conservative policy to Christian faith during Ronald Reagan’s rise. Now progressives are testing whether the same playbook works to sell socialist and identity-driven policy to voters in Florida, Michigan and Texas ahead of the midterms.
