Three progressive Democrats running for the U.S. Senate this midterm cycle are leaning on faith to sell their policy platforms to voters, comparing their positions to the teachings of Jesus Christ even as Republicans label those same positions “radical.”
Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Texas state Rep. James Talarico are each running insurgent campaigns against establishment-backed opponents. All three have woven religious language into their messaging as they push back against attacks from national Republicans.
Nixon: “Jesus Was a Radical”
Nixon, who upset Alexander Vindman — a figure from President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial who had backing from Washington Democrats — 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 though she denies being a Democratic socialist.
During a sermon last week at the Saint Paul AME Church of Jacksonville, Fla., Nixon addressed the “extremist” label directly.
“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 Makes a Similar Case
El-Sayed, who is Muslim and is running in Michigan’s toss-up race against former Rep. Mike Rogers, made a comparable argument in May on the Progressive Christians Podcast when asked about the overlap between his faith and Christianity and why his positions were being called 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’s Seminary Studies
Talarico, who is challenging Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has leaned on his faith more than the other two. He has been taking seminary classes to become a Presbyterian minister and has fused Christian language with his policy platform since launching his campaign last year, drawing Republican criticism especially over his defense of transgender children.
In 2021, arguing against a Texas GOP anti-trans bill, Talarico said Republicans were justifying 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 marks a notable shift for the political left, which has often ceded explicitly religious appeals to Republicans since the rise of the Moral Majority coalition in the late 1970s, when former President Ronald Reagan and allied conservatives tied policy positions directly to Christian teaching.
